• Participation in early childhood education
• School leavers with higher qualifications
• Educational attainment of the adult population
• Adult literacy skills in English
• Participation in tertiary education

Educational attainment of the adult population

Relevance

The educational attainment of the adult population is an indicator of the skills available in the economy. The level of formal educational qualifications in the population is a commonly used proxy for the stock of "human capital", ie the skills available in the population and labour force.

Current level and trends

In the year ended June 2004, 79 percent of the population aged 25–64 years (1.7 million people) had attained an educational qualification of upper secondary level or above. This proportion has steadily increased from 64 percent in 1991. Over the same period the proportion of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification has risen from 8 percent to 16 percent (338,000). While some of the increase is due to adults gaining additional qualifications, most of the upward trend is due to new entrants to the 25–64 age group (young people and migrants) being better qualified on average than people reaching retirement age.

Figure K3.1 Proportion of adults aged 25–64 with educational achievement of at least upper secondary level and tertiary level, 1991-2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (1991–2004)
Note: Tertiary equals bachelor’s degree or higher

Age and sex differences

Younger adults aged 25–34 years are much more likely to have at least upper secondary school qualifications than adults aged 55–64 (86 percent, compared to 67 percent). Similarly, young adults are more likely than older people to have tertiary qualifications (21 percent, compared to 9 percent).

Sex differences in educational attainment have narrowed over time. In 2004, women were more likely than men to have higher educational qualifications at ages 25–34. In contrast, at older ages men are much more likely than women to have higher educational qualifications.

Table K3.1 Proportion (%) of population aged 25–64 with higher qualifications, by age and sex, 2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (2004)
Note: Tertiary equals bachelor’s degree or higher

Ethnic differences

Māori and Pacific adults are much less likely than European and "Other" ethnic groups to have higher qualifications. In the year ended June 2004, 65 percent of Māori and 70 percent of Pacific adults aged 25–64 held at least upper secondary qualifications, compared to 81 percent of Europeans. Similarly, just 6 percent of Māori and 7 percent of Pacific adults held a tertiary qualification at bachelor’s degree level or above, compared to 16 percent of Europeans. However, since 1991, growth in the proportion of adults with at least upper secondary qualifications was faster among Māori and Pacific adults than among Europeans.

Table K3.2 Proportion (%) of population aged 25–64 with higher qualifications, by ethnic group, selected years, 1991–2004

Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey (1991–2004)
Notes: [1] "Other" in this data includes the Asian population [2] Tertiary equals bachelor’s degree or higher [3] ..s equals sampling error too high for publication

Regional differences

Regional variations in the proportion of adults with higher qualifications reflect in part the location of tertiary education institutions and tertiary sector employment. In 2004, Auckland and Wellington had the highest proportion of adults with tertiary qualifications (22 percent) and Southland had the lowest proportion (5 percent).

International comparison

In 2002, 76 percent of New Zealand adults had at least upper secondary level qualifications, compared with an OECD median of 69 percent.⁴⁰ New Zealand ranked 12th out of 30 OECD countries. New Zealand ranked 16th in the proportion of adults who have completed tertiary qualifications to bachelor’s degree or higher, with a rate of 15 percent (the same as the OECD median). Countries which had higher proportions of adults with tertiary qualifications at this level included the United States (29 percent – the highest rate), Canada (21 percent), Australia (20 percent), and the United Kingdom (19 percent).