Türkiye nears OECD average in higher education attainment

ANKARA

Türkiye has significantly increased its share of higher education graduates in recent years, coming close to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, according to data published by the country’s statistics office.

In the 25–34 age group, 44.9 percent of the population in Türkiye held a higher education degree last year, up from just 13.5 percent in 2008, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on May 29.

The increase has been particularly sharp among women, whose graduation rate rose from 12.5 percent to 48.9 percent over the same period.

Among men, the figure climbed from 14.6 percent to 41.1 percent.

By comparison, the OECD average for this age group was 47.4 percent in 2022, the most recent year with comparable international data. South Korea led OECD countries with a 69.6 percent graduation rate, while Mexico had the lowest at 27.3 percent.

The capital Ankara recorded the highest average years of schooling in 2024, with 10.8 years, while the lowest was in the eastern city of Ağrı at 7.5 years, the data indicated.

Alongside the increase in the number of higher education graduates in Türkiye, the position of educational institutions in global rankings continues to improve.

Turkish universities achieved their strongest performance in education sciences in the Times Higher Education (THE) 2025 Subject Rankings.

One Turkish university ranked in the global top 100, six in the top 500 and 35 in the top 1,000 in education sciences, along with strong placements across various other disciplines.