Measuring Ireland's Progress 2022

Ireland: Real current public expenditure on education

• Ireland's real current public expenditure on education (at constant 2021 prices) rose from €bn in 2009 to €9.7bn in 2019.  Overall, between 2009 and 2019, real current public expenditure increased by 5.5% (see Table 4.1).
• Ireland's real current expenditure on primary education increased by 2.1% between 2009 and 2019, from €7,280 per student to €7,430 per student (at constant 2021 prices).
• At secondary level, real expenditure per student decreased by 4.3% between 2009 and 2019, from €10,257 per student in 2009 to €9,816 per student in 2019.
• Over the same period, real expenditure per student at third level education decreased from €10,565 in 2009 to €7,486 in 2019, a drop of 29.1%.

Ireland: Number of students by level

• Primary school enrolment increased by 6.0% between 2012/2013 and 2022/2023, from 526,422 pupils to 558,143 pupils. The number has fallen from a peak of 567,772 in 2018/2019 (see Table 4.2).
• Secondary school enrolment increased by 12.0% between 2012/2013 and 2022/2023, from 362,847 to 406,392.
• The number of third level students increased by over a quarter (25.2%) between 2012/2013 and 2022/2023, rising from 205,030 to 256,785 students. The number of students peaked in 2021/2022 at 261,010 before declining slightly.

By country: Ratio of students to teachers

• Ireland had a student to teacher ratio of 14.3 for primary level education in 2021 (school year 2020/2021). This was the seventh highest ratio in the EU27 and was above the EU27 average of 13.4 (see Table 4.3).
• The lowest student to teacher ratio for primary education in the EU27 in 2021 was in Greece at 8.0, and the highest was in Romania at 18.7.
• For upper secondary level, Ireland had a student to teacher ratio of 12.4 in 2021. The EU27 average for upper secondary was 11.1 and for lower secondary it was 11.6.
• In 2021, Belgium and Malta had the joint lowest student to teacher ratio in upper secondary in the EU27 at 7.0, and the Netherlands had the highest at 17.4. For lower secondary, Malta had the lowest at 6.7, and the Netherlands also had the highest at 15.7.

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

• More than six in ten (62.3.%) of persons aged 25-34 in Ireland had a third level qualification in 2022, which was the highest rate in the EU27 and over 20 percentage points higher than the EU27 average of 42.0% (see Table 4.4).
• Females were more likely to have a third level education compared to males in all EU countries in 2022, with Slovenia having the highest percentage point differential of 23.8.
• In Ireland, 59.1% of men aged 25-34 had a third level qualification in 2022, compared to 65.3% of women.
• Ireland had the second lowest gender differential between the proportions of men and women with third level education at 6.2 percentage points, while Germany had the lowest at 4.6.

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 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 2022 was 491.6, the third highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average score of 472.4. Estonia had the highest score in this category at 509.9 (see Table 4.5).
• In reading literacy, Ireland had a score of 516.0 points, the highest in the EU27 in 2022 and above the OECD average of 475.6.
• The average score for scientific literacy in Ireland was 503.8, the third highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average of 484.6. The EU27 countries with the highest scientific literacy scores were Estonia (525.8) and Finland (511).

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 2022, the NEET rate in Ireland was 9.3%, below the EU27 average rate of 12.4% (see Table 4.6).
• In the EU27, the Netherlands had the lowest NEET rate at 3.8%, while Romania had the highest at 22.3% followed by Italy at 19.9%.
• Fifteen countries in the EU27 had higher NEET rates for men in 2022. Of these, Estonia had the highest gender differential at 8.6 percentage points.
• Twelve countries had a higher NEET rate for women, including Ireland where the gender differential was 1.9, with an 8.3% NEET rate for men and 10.2% for women. The largest gender differential was in Romania at 9.8 percentage points.

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

• In 2021, Ireland had the highest rate of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates, at 40.3 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29, compared with an EU27 average of 21.9 (see Table 4.7).
• Ireland also had the largest gender differential in the EU27 at 25.6, with 53.0 male STEM graduates per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 compared with 27.4 females.
• Despite the large gender differential, Ireland had the highest female STEM graduate rate in the EU27, nearly twice the average of 14.8 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29. Ireland's male STEM graduate rate was also much higher than the EU27 average of 28.7.
• Luxembourg had the lowest rate of STEM graduates in the EU27 in 2021 at 4.9 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29, and the lowest gender differential at 3.4.