Measuring Ireland's Progress 2021

Ireland: Real current public expenditure on education

• Ireland's real current public expenditure on education (at constant prices) rose from €8.2bn in 2008 to €9.2bn in 2018. Overall, between 2008 and 2018, real current public expenditure increased by 11.5% (see Table 4.1).
• Ireland's real current expenditure on primary education increased by 5.2% between 2008 and 2018, from €6,455 per student to €6,788 per student.
• At secondary level, real expenditure per student decreased by 5.8% between 2008 and 2018, from €9,343 per student in 2008 to €8,797 per student in 2018.
• Over the same period, real expenditure per student at third level education decreased from €11,160 in 2008 to €7,252 in 2018, a drop of 35.0%.

Ireland: Number of students by level

• Primary school enrolment increased by 7.4% between 2012 and 2022, from 516,458 pupils in 2012 to 554,788 pupils in 2022. The number has fallen from a peak of 567,772 in 2019 (see Table 4.2).
• Secondary school enrolment increased by 12.8% between 2012 and 2021, from 359,047 to 405,003. The total number of secondary students is not available yet for 2022.
• The number of third level students increased by over a quarter (25.1%) in 2022 compared with 2012, rising from 196,856 to 246,300 students, the highest ever number.

By country: Ratio of students to teachers

• Ireland had a student to teacher ratio of 15.0 for primary level education in 2020 (school year 2019/2020). This was the sixth highest ratio in the EU27 and was above the EU27 average of 13.6 (see Table 4.3).
• The lowest student to teacher ratio for primary education in the EU27 in 2020 was in Greece at 8.4, and the highest was in Romania at 19.2.
• For secondary level, Ireland had a student to teacher ratio of 12.9 in 2020. The EU27 average for upper secondary was 11.2 and for lower secondary it was 11.8.
• In 2020, Luxembourg had the lowest student to teacher ratio in upper secondary in the EU27 at 4.7, and the Netherlands had the highest at 17.5. For lower secondary, Malta had the lowest at 6.8, and the Netherlands also had the highest at 15.9.

By country: Persons aged 25-34 with third level education by sex

• Almost two thirds (61.7.%) of persons aged 25-34 in Ireland had a third level qualification in 2021, above the EU27 average of 41.2% (see Table 4.4), and the second highest rate in the EU27 behind Luxembourg (62.6%).
• Females were more likely to have a third level education compared to males in all EU countries in 2021, with Slovenia having the highest percentage point differential of 23.6.
• In Ireland, 57.4% of men aged 25-34 had a third level qualification in 2021, compared to 66.1% of women.
• Ireland had the fifth lowest gender differential between men and women with third level education at 8.7 percentage points, while Germany had the lowest gender differential at 3.8.

By country: Student performance on the mathematics, reading, and science literacy scales

• The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam is held every three years, with the most recent postponed from 2021 to 2022. The results of this were not available at the time of publication of this report so the most recent data available is from 2018. The exam is scored on a scale of 0 to 1,000.
• The average score of 15 year-olds in Ireland on the mathematical literacy scale in 2018 was 499.6, the tenth highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average score of 489.3. Estonia had the highest score in this category at 523.4 (see Table 4.5).
• In reading literacy, Ireland had a score of 518.1 points, the third highest in the EU27. Estonia had the highest reading literacy score at 523.
• The average score for scientific literacy in Ireland was 496.1, the eleventh highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average of 488.7. The three EU27 countries with the highest scientific literacy scores were: Estonia (530.1), Finland (521.9), and Poland (511.0).

By country: Young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET rate)

• The NEET rate measures the proportion of young people aged 18-24 who are neither in employment nor in education and training.
• In 2021, the NEET rate in Ireland was 10.2%, below the EU27 average rate of 13.7% (see Table 4.6).
• In the EU27, the Netherlands had the lowest NEET rate at 4.0%, while Italy had the highest at 24.5%.
• Fifteen countries in the EU27 had higher NEET rates for men. Of these, Estonia had the highest gender differential at 4.0 percentage points. The gender differential in Ireland was 2.5, with an 11.4% NEET rate for men and 8.9% for women.
• The remaining twelve countries had higher NEET rates amongst women in 2021, with the largest gender differential occurring in Romania at 9.2.

By country: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates by sex

• In 2020, Ireland had the highest rate of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates, at 39.9 per 1,000 of persons aged 20-29, compared with an EU27 average of 20.9 (see Table 4.7).
• Ireland also had the largest gender differential in the EU27 at 27.5, with 53.5 male STEM graduates per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 compared with 26.0 females.
• Despite the large gender differential, Ireland had the highest female STEM graduate rate in the EU27, nearly twice the average of 13.9 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29. Ireland's male STEM graduate rate was also nearly twice the EU27 average of 27.6.
• Luxembourg had the lowest rate of STEM graduates in 2020 at 4.2 per 1,000 of persons aged 20-29. Luxembourg also had the lowest gender differential in the EU27 at 3.1, with 5.7 male STEM graduates per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 compared with 2.6 for female STEM graduates.