OECD members - Pupil-teacher ratio, preprimary

Pupil-teacher ratio, preprimary in OECD members was 15.17 as of 2018. Its highest value over the past 48 years was 23.35 in 1975, while its lowest value was 14.96 in 2014.

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

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

See also:

Year Value
1970 22.68
1971 22.70
1972 22.51
1973 22.84
1974 23.09
1975 23.35
1976 23.18
1977 22.89
1978 22.75
1979 22.41
1980 22.07
1981 21.81
1982 21.57
1983 21.33
1984 21.13
1985 21.02
1986 21.00
1987 20.85
1988 20.63
1989 20.35
1990 20.08
1991 19.83
1992 19.94
1993 20.02
1994 19.91
1995 19.91
1996 20.14
1997 19.81
1998 20.56
1999 19.75
2000 19.35
2001 18.90
2002 18.10
2003 17.61
2004 17.49
2005 17.80
2006 17.44
2007 17.31
2008 17.28
2009 16.84
2010 16.14
2011 15.67
2012 15.19
2013 15.06
2014 14.96
2015 15.05
2016 15.27
2017 15.30
2018 15.17

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