OECD members - Pupil-teacher ratio, primary

Pupil-teacher ratio, primary in OECD members was 15.32 as of 2018. Its highest value over the past 48 years was 20.75 in 1971, while its lowest value was 15.32 in 2018.

Definition: Primary school pupil-teacher ratio is the average number of pupils per teacher in primary school.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (http://uis.unesco.org/)

See also:

Year Value
1970 20.61
1971 20.75
1972 20.66
1973 20.53
1974 20.49
1975 20.48
1976 20.54
1977 20.47
1978 20.43
1979 20.46
1980 20.15
1981 20.06
1982 19.93
1983 19.85
1984 19.77
1985 19.56
1986 19.36
1987 19.33
1988 19.19
1989 19.04
1990 18.91
1991 18.73
1992 18.61
1993 18.46
1994 18.10
1995 18.17
1996 18.10
1997 17.98
1998 18.05
1999 17.85
2000 17.52
2001 17.50
2002 17.20
2003 17.14
2004 16.93
2005 16.71
2006 16.50
2007 16.31
2008 16.17
2009 16.10
2010 15.85
2011 15.96
2012 16.00
2013 15.96
2014 15.86
2015 15.65
2016 15.41
2017 15.33
2018 15.32

Development Relevance: The pupil-teacher ratio is often used to compare the quality of schooling across countries, but it is often weakly related to student learning and quality of education.

Limitations and Exceptions: The comparability of pupil-teacher ratios across countries is affected by the definition of teachers and by differences in class size by grade and in the number of hours taught, as well as the different practices countries employ such as part-time teachers, school shifts, and multi-grade classes. Moreover, the underlying enrollment levels are subject to a variety of reporting errors.

Other Notes: Data retrieved via API in March 2019. For detailed information on the observation level (e.g. National Estimation, UIS Estimation, or Category not applicable), please visit UIS.Stat (http://data.uis.unesco.org/).

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Pupil-teacher ratio is calculated by dividing the number of students at the specified level of education by the number of teachers at the same level of education. Data on education are collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics from official responses to its annual education survey. All the data are mapped to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) to ensure the comparability of education programs at the international level. The current version was formally adopted by UNESCO Member States in 2011. The reference years reflect the school year for which the data are presented. In some countries the school year spans two calendar years (for example, from September 2010 to June 2011); in these cases the reference year refers to the year in which the school year ended (2011 in the example).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Education Indicators

Sub-Topic: Inputs