Measuring Ireland's Progress 2026

Ireland: Real current public expenditure on education

• Ireland’s real current public expenditure on education (at constant 2024 prices) declined from €12.3bn in 2021 to €11.3bn in 2023 (-8.3%) (see Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1). 
• Ireland’s real current expenditure on primary education decreased by 10.5% between 2021 and 2023, from €9,613 per student to €8,608 per student (at constant 2024 prices).
• At secondary level, real expenditure per student decreased by 17.8% between 2021 and 2023, from €11,110 per student in 2021 to €9,137 per student in 2023. The number of students in secondary level increased 27,208 over the same time period (see Table 4.2).
• Over the same period, real expenditure per student at third level education increased from €10,812 in 2021 to €11,016 in 2023 (+1.9%).
• Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) figures, which were previously reported as a combined figure with second-level, will be reported separately from reference year 2021 onwards in the Measuring Ireland’s Progress release. This is because the source of PLC funding has changed from the Department of Education to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). Ireland's real current expenditure on PLC education decreased by 0.6% between 2021 and 2023, from €6,831 per student to €6,793 per student.

Ireland: Number of students by level

• Primary school enrolment dropped by 1.4% between 2016 and 2026, from 553,380 pupils to 545,726 pupils, with the numbers peaking over the period in 2019 at 567,772 (see Table 4.2).
• Secondary school enrolment increased by 13.7% between 2016 and 2026, from 378,003 to 429,653.
• The number of third level students increased by 27.5% between 2016 and 2026, rising from 222,620 to 283,950 students.

By country: Ratio of students to teachers

• Ireland’s primary-level student-to-teacher ratio was 12.7 in 2024 (academic year 2023/2024), ranking 17th out of 27 EU countries and falling below the EU27 average of 13.3 (see Table 4.3).
• The lowest student-to-teacher ratio for primary education in the EU27 in 2024 was in Greece at 7.4, and the highest was in Romania at 18.2.
• At upper secondary level, Ireland had a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.2 in 2024, ranking 23rd out of 27 EU countries and higher than the EU27 average of 11.3. At lower secondary level, the EU27 average was 11.7 students per teacher.
• In 2024, Malta had the lowest student to teacher ratio in upper secondary in the EU27 at 7.4, and Finland had the highest at 17.4. 

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

• More than two-thirds (66.8%) of 25-34 year-olds in Ireland held a third-level qualification in 2025, which was the highest rate in the EU27, and 22 percentage points above the EU27 average of 44.8% (see Table 4.4).
• Females were more likely to have a third level education compared to males in all EU countries in 2025, with Slovenia having the highest percentage point differential of 23.8. The same holds for the EFTA and EU candidate countries for which data is available.
• In Ireland, 63.3% of men aged 25-34 had a third-level qualification in 2025, compared to 70.2% of women. 
• Ireland had the fourth-lowest gender differential in third-level education attainment in the EU, at 6.9 percentage points - a rank it shared with France. Romania had the lowest differential at 4.1 percentage points, followed by Luxembourg at 5.4 and Germany at 6.1.

By country: Student performance on the mathematics, reading, and science literacy scales

• The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), run by the OECD, has historically been administered every three years to 15-year-old students. The most recent cycle, in 2025, involved over 90 countries and economies, including 22 countries from the EU27.
• The average score of 15-year-olds in Ireland on the mathematical literacy scale in 2025 was 479.9, the fourth highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average score of 463.0. Estonia had the highest score in this category at 507.9 (see Table 4.5).
• In reading literacy, Ireland had a score of 500.4 points, the highest in the EU27 in 2025. The OECD average was 460.9.
• The average score for scientific literacy in Ireland was 499.6, the third highest in the EU27 and above the OECD average of 481.9. The EU27 countries with the highest scientific literacy scores were Estonia (527.1) and Finland (504.4).
• Between 2022 and 2025, Ireland’s PISA scores declined across the reading, mathematics, and science assessments (see Figure 4.4). Reading saw the largest decline (-15.6 points), followed by mathematics (-11.7) and science (-4.2). OECD averages also declined over the same period, with reading seeing the largest decrease (-14.7 points), followed by mathematics (-9.4) and science (-2.7) (see Figure 4.5).
• In 2025, PISA introduced a new assessment focusing on 15-year olds’ computational problem-solving skills, alongside the existing assessments of reading, mathematics, and science. The mean score of Ireland in this category was 511.4, above the OECD average of 500 and fourth highest in the EU27 (see Table 4.5).

By country: Young people aged 18-24 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 2025, the NEET rate in Ireland was 8.8%, the fifth lowest in the EU27 and below the EU27 average of 11.8% (see Table 4.6).
• In the EU27 in 2025, the Netherlands had the lowest NEET rate at 5.0%, while Romania had the highest at 21.0%.
• Fourteen countries in the EU27 had higher NEET rates for men than for women in 2025. This included Ireland where the gender differential was 1.0 percentage points with a 9.3% NEET rate for men and 8.3% for women.
• Twelve countries had a higher NEET rate for women, and of these the largest gender differential was in Romania at 8.7 percentage points.

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

• In 2024, Ireland had the highest rate of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) graduates, at 39.8 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29, compared with an EU27 average of 23.0 (see Table 4.7).
• Ireland had the second largest gender differential in the EU27 at 20.4, with 49.9 male STEM graduates per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 compared with 29.5 females.
• Ireland had the highest female STEM graduate rate in the EU27 at 29.5, and it was over 13.6 units higher than the EU average of 15.9 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29. Finland had the second highest female STEM graduate rate in the EU27 at 23.2.
• Ireland’s male STEM graduate rate of 49.9 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 was also much higher than the EU27 average of 29.7.
• Luxembourg had the lowest rate of STEM graduates in the EU27 in 2024 at 5.6 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29, and the lowest gender differential at 3.4.