Compulsory education, duration (years)

Definition

Duration of compulsory education is the number of years that children are legally obliged to attend school.

Methodology for Education indicators

Education indicators come from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics, national ministries, and school censuses. Enrollment rates can exceed 100% when over-age children are still in school (repeating grades), so "net enrollment" — which counts only age-appropriate students — is often the more interpretable metric. Literacy data is updated infrequently in many countries.

How to interpret

• Always check the unit and reporting year before comparing values across countries.
• NULL or "Not available" means the World Bank did not publish a value — we never estimate.
• Year-over-year changes can be driven by methodology updates, not just real economic shifts.