Pupil-teacher ratio, primary - Country Ranking - Europe

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: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Romania 19.33 2017
2 Belarus 19.23 2018
3 Czech Republic 18.93 2013
4 France 18.18 2013
5 Moldova 17.92 2018
6 Albania 17.57 2018
7 Turkey 16.98 2017
8 Bosnia and Herzegovina 16.93 2018
9 Ireland 16.06 2012
10 Slovak Republic 15.54 2017
11 Bulgaria 15.21 2017
12 United Kingdom 15.13 2017
13 North Macedonia 14.91 2017
14 Serbia 14.29 2018
15 Slovenia 13.80 2016
16 Finland 13.67 2017
17 Lithuania 13.52 2017
18 Croatia 13.51 2016
19 Spain 13.13 2017
20 Ukraine 12.98 2018
21 Malta 12.94 2017
22 Portugal 12.35 2017
23 Germany 12.30 2017
24 Sweden 12.23 2017
25 Cyprus 12.04 2017
26 Netherlands 11.81 2017
27 Monaco 11.70 2019
28 Latvia 11.54 2017
29 Italy 11.48 2017
30 Estonia 11.31 2017
31 Belgium 11.28 2017
32 Hungary 10.77 2016
33 Denmark 10.74 2014
34 Andorra 10.50 2018
35 Poland 10.18 2017
36 Iceland 10.14 2015
37 Austria 10.02 2017
38 Switzerland 9.93 2017
39 Greece 9.38 2017
40 Norway 8.59 2017
41 Luxembourg 8.30 2016
42 Liechtenstein 7.80 2017
43 San Marino 6.93 2018

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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