School Life Expectancy
(expected number of years of formal schooling), latest available year

COUNTRY OR AREA

Year

Total

Male

Female

Albania

2000/2001

10.9

10.7

11.1

Algeria

1998/1999

11.5

...

...

Argentina

1999/2000

14.3

13.5

15.0

Armenia

2000/2001

8.5

8.1

8.8

Australia

2000/2001

16.8

16.6

17.0

Austria

2000/2001

14.8

14.8

14.7

Azerbaijan

1998/1999

10.5

10.6

10.5

Bahrain

1998/1999

13.0

12.5

13.6

Bangladesh

2000/2001

8.4

8.4

8.4

Barbados

2000/2001

13.1

12.5

13.9

Belarus

2000/2001

12.2

11.8

12.6

Belgium

1999/2000

15.7

15.6

15.9

Benin

1999/2000

7.0

8.8

5.2

Bolivia

2000/2001

13.4

...

...

Botswana

2000/2001

12.4

12.3

12.4

Brazil

2000/2001

13.4

13.1

13.6

Brunei Darussalam

1992

12.5

12.3

12.7

Bulgaria

2000/2001

12.7

12.5

12.9

Burkina Faso

1993

2.8

3.5

2.2

Burundi

1992

4.9

5.5

4.3

Cambodia

2000/2001

7.7

8.2

7.0

Canada

1999/2000

14.8

14.4

15.3

Chad

1999/2000

5.2

6.8

3.6

Chile

1999/2000

13.5

13.7

13.3

China, Macao SAR

2000/2001

13.8

14.0

13.6

Colombia

2000/2001

11.1

10.8

11.3

Costa Rica

2000/2001

10.2

10.1

10.4

Croatia

2000/2001

11.9

11.7

12.1

Cuba

2000/2001

12.3

12.2

12.4

Cyprus

1999/2000

12.3

12.1

12.6

Czech Republic

2000/2001

13.6

13.6

13.7

Dem. Rep. of the Congo

1998/1999

4.3

...

...

Denmark

2000/2001

15.2

14.8

15.7

Djibouti

2000/2001

3.9

4.6

3.2

Egypt

2000/2001

10.1

10.4

9.8

El Salvador

1998/1999

10.6

10.6

10.6

Eritrea

2000/2001

5.0

5.7

4.2

Estonia

2000/2001

14.4

13.9

15.0

Ethiopia

2000/2001

5.2

6.2

4.1

Finland

2000/2001

16.7

16.2

17.3

France

2000/2001

15.4

15.1

15.7

Georgia

2000/2001

6.4

6.4

6.4

Germany

1998/1999

15.3

15.4

15.1

Ghana

2000/2001

7.3

7.8

6.7

Greece

2000/2001

14.9

14.7

15.1

Grenada

2000/2001

9.7

4.8

...

Guyana

1995

9.9

9.8

9.9

Honduras

1991

8.7

...

...

Hungary

1999/2000

13.6

13.4

13.8

Iceland

2000/2001

16.0

15.3

16.8

Indonesia

1994

10.0

10.4

9.6

Iran (Islamic Rep. of)

1996

11.3

12.0

10.5

Iraq

1999/2000

9.1

10.3

7.7

Ireland

1999/2000

14.9

14.4

15.3

Israel

2000/2001

14.8

14.3

15.2

Italy

2000/2001

14.9

14.6

15.3

Jamaica

2000/2001

11.0

10.7

11.3

Japan

2000/2001

14.3

...

...

Jordan

1999/2000

12.3

12.0

12.6

Kazakhstan

2000/2001

11.7

11.7

11.7

Kenya

2000/2001

7.8

7.9

7.8

Korea, Republic of

2000/2001

15.5

16.4

14.5

Kuwait

1998/1999

8.7

8.2

9.2

Lao People's Dem. Rep.

2000/2001

8.3

9.2

7.4

Latvia

2000/2001

13.3

12.3

14.3

Lebanon

1998/1999

12.8

12.7

13.0

Lesotho

2000/2001

10.2

9.8

10.5

Liberia

1999/2000

9.3

10.8

7.9

Lithuania

2000/2001

14.2

13.7

14.7

Luxembourg

2000/2001

13.1

...

...

Madagascar

1998/1999

6.1

6.3

6.0

Malaysia

2000/2001

12.1

11.8

12.4

Maldives

1999/2000

11.7

11.7

11.8

Mali

1990

2.1

2.7

1.4

Malta

1999/2000

7.2

7.1

7.3

Mauritania

2000/2001

6.7

7.2

6.2

Mauritius

2000/2001

12.0

11.9

12.2

Mexico

1999/2000

11.5

11.6

11.4

Mongolia

2000/2001

9.8

8.8

10.7

Morocco

1999/2000

8.2

8.9

7.4

Mozambique

2000/2001

5.8

6.7

4.9

Myanmar

2000/2001

7.4

7.3

7.4

Namibia

1999/2000

11.9

11.7

12.1

Netherlands

2000/2001

16.0

16.1

15.9

Netherlands Antilles

2000/2001

12.1

12.1

12.0

New Zealand

2000/2001

16.4

15.7

17.2

Niger

2000/2001

2.6

3.2

2.1

Norway

2000/2001

16.9

16.2

17.7

Occ. Palestinian Territory

2000/2001

12.2

11.9

12.4

Oman

2000/2001

9.0

9.1

8.9

Panama

1999/2000

12.4

11.9

12.9

Papua New Guinea

1998/1999

6.1

6.4

5.7

Paraguay

2000/2001

10.4

10.5

10.4

Peru

1998/1999

11.8

12.6

11.0

Philippines

2000/2001

11.4

11.3

11.6

Poland

2000/2001

14.7

14.3

15.1

Portugal

2000/2001

15.2

14.8

15.7

Qatar

1998/1999

13.1

12.3

14.0

Republic of Moldova

2000/2001

9.7

9.5

10.0

Romania

2000/2001

11.7

11.6

11.9

Samoa

2000/2001

12.0

11.8

12.1

Saint Lucia

1998/1999

12.3

12.1

12.5

Saudi Arabia

1998/1999

...

...

9.4

Serbia and Montenegro ^a

2000/2001

10.3

10.0

10.6

Sierra Leone

2000/2001

6.1

6.8

5.5

Slovakia

2000/2001

13.1

13.0

13.2

Slovenia

1998/1999

14.0

13.6

14.6

South Africa

2000/2001

12.6

12.6

12.7

Spain

2000/2001

15.5

15.2

15.7

Swaziland

1999/2000

12.1

12.5

11.8

Sweden

1999/2000

15.9

15.0

16.8

Switzerland

2000/2001

15.1

15.6

14.6

Syrian Arab Republic

1998/1999

9.0

...

...

Tajikistan

2000/2001

9.9

10.7

9.1

Thailand

1999/2000

10.8

10.7

10.8

The FYR of Macedonia

1999/2000

11.9

11.8

12.1

Togo

1998/1999

10.5

11.9

8.5

Tonga

2000/2001

12.8

12.7

12.9

Trinidad and Tobago

2000/2001

11.4

11.2

11.5

Tunisia

2000/2001

13.7

13.7

13.7

Turkey

1994

9.5

10.4

8.5

Ukraine

1998/1999

11.4

11.1

11.6

United Arab Emirates

1998/1999

10.7

...

...

United Kingdom

2000/2001

16.3

15.8

16.7

United Republic of Tanzania

2000/2001

5.0

5.1

5.0

United States of America

2000/2001

15.3

14.8

15.8

Uruguay

1999/2000

13.7

13.0

14.4

Venezuela

2000/2001

10.5

10.1

10.9

Viet Nam

2000/2001

10.4

...

...

Yemen

1998/1999

8.5

11.4

5.3

Zambia

2000/2001

6.9

7.3

6.6

Zimbabwe

2000/2001

9.4

9.7

9.2

Source:
UNESCO Institute for Statistics, School life expectancy, percentage of repeaters and survival rate in primary education by country and gender, March 2003, published in http://www.uis.unesco.org accessed on May 2003 and Women's Indicators and Statistics Database (Wistat), Version 4, CD-ROM (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.00.XVII.4) based on data provided by UNESCO in 1999.

Footnotes:
...    Not available.
^a Formerly known as Yugoslavia.

Technical notes:
The expected number of years of schooling, or school life expectancy (SLE), is defined as the total number of years of schooling which a child can expect to receive, assuming that the probability of his or her being enrolled in school at any particular future age is equal to the current enrolment ratio at that age.

Caution should be exercised when utilizing this indicator in international comparisons. For example, a year or grade completed in one country is not necessarily the same in terms of educational content or quality as a year or grade completed in another country. Moreover, it should be noted that SLE does not necessarily coincide with the expected number of grades completed, because of the possibility of repeating grades.

Thus, school life expectancy represents the expected number of years of schooling that will be completed, including years spent repeating one or more grades. It is a synthetic summary indicator of the overall pattern of enrolment ratios at one particular point in time, and has no predictive value except in so far as it is believed that enrolment patterns will remain unchanged into the future.

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