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In 2024, 65% of 25- to 34-year-olds held a third level qualification, similar to the rate for 35- 44-year-olds (61%).
Almost two-thirds of adults (64%) aged 25 to 34 years, participated in lifelong learning in 2022, compared with one-third (35%) of people aged 55 to 69 years, in 2022.
The retention rate of pupils sitting the Junior Certificate was 97.6%, for those who started secondary education in 2016 (2016 Cohort). The Leaving Certificate retention rate was 91.7%.
Over 91% of three- to four-year-olds were enrolled in the early years sector in 2022/23, up from 83.5% two years previously.
Nearly four-fifths (78%) of early years educators working with groups of three- to five-year-olds in 2021 had a qualification at level 6 or higher, while it was three-fifths (60%) of early years educators for the younger age groups.
This release Ireland's UN SDGs – Goal 4 Quality Education 2024 is an update of the previous release in the series from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). These releases monitor and report on how Ireland is progressing towards meeting its targets under the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The CSO and government departments and organisations collaborate to bring together data required in these reports for Ireland’s SDGs. This collaboration is formalised under the SDG Data Governance Board, which meets on a quarterly basis. The release for Goal 4 was developed in collaboration with the Department of Education.
This fourth release includes data for Ireland for each of the SDG indicators selected by the UN to measure Goal 4 Quality Education. Data are available at various levels of detail which include geography, gender, age group and other categories, where relevant, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
This report on Goal 4 has 12 indicators which are organised into three user friendly chapters:
The titles of these chapters are based around common themes in the ten targets which are measured in Goal 4.
The 17 UN SDGs are a set of global development targets adopted by the UN member countries in September 2015 to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. The UN SDGs are driving the global development agenda towards 2030 (Agenda 2030). They address global challenges including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, the aim is to achieve them all by 2030. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and help economic growth, while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
The CSO, Ordnance Survey Ireland* (OSi) and Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri-Ireland) established a project team in April 2017 to engage with a combined UN Statistics Division (UNSD)/Esri research exercise with a goal to develop and deploy a new approach for monitoring the UN SDG Indicators using geographic information systems. The result of this exercise is a new website (Ireland's SDGs Data Hub), hosted on OSi's Geohive platform, which is Ireland’s Central Portal for all SDGs and contains indicators data on the 17 UN SDGs for Ireland. All the indicators in this release will be loaded onto the Geohive. This work has been formalised through the creation of Ireland’s Institute for SDGs (IIS) - an initiative between the CSO, OSi and Department of Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC). The membership of the IIS is expected to expand with ongoing monitoring and reporting of Ireland's progress towards meeting UN SDGs.
*Tailte Eireann is an independent Government agency formed by the merger of the Property Registration Authority (PRA), the Valuation Office and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI), on 1st March 2023.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (02 December 2024) published 'Ireland's UN SDGs indicators data for Goal 4 Quality Education 2024.
Commenting on the release, Mary Smyth, Statistician, said:
"This latest report on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) has data on 12 indicators for Ireland, divided over three chapters: Childhood Education, Adult Education, and Education Infrastructure. Data are presented in categories relevant to the indicators and geographical location, where possible. The UN SDGs and their associated indicators are, by design, wide-ranging in their coverage. As a result, the Irish data is provided by a number of sources including government departments, official organisations and international organisations such as the UN. This release for Goal 4 was developed in collaboration with the Department of Education.”
The Results
“The CSO’s Educational Attainment Thematic Report 2024 shows that third level attainment was highest in the 25- to 34-year-olds with 65% holding a third level qualification, followed closely with 61% of 35- to 44-year-olds in 2024. The age cohort with the lowest third level attainment was the 20- to 24-year-olds at 25%, reflecting increased levels of participation in third level education over time.
Younger people are more likely to participate in lifelong learning than older people, as shown in the CSO’s Adult Education Survey 2022. Almost two-thirds of adults (64%) aged 25 to 34 years, participated in lifelong learning, compared with one-third (35%) of persons aged 55 to 69 years, in 2022. Employed people aged 25 to 69 years were more likely to have participated in lifelong learning than those who were unemployed (62% versus 35%).
The Department of Education’s report Retention Rates of Pupils in Second-Level Schools Entry Cohort 2016 shows the progression of the 2016 cohort of young people through the education system. It found a retention rate of 97.6% for those sitting the Junior Certificate while the retention was 91.7% for the Leaving Certificate. The gender gap between males and females decreased by 3.2 percentage points.
Early Years Education
Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile surveys shows over 91% of three to four year olds were enrolled in the early years sector in 2022/23, up from 83.5% two years previously. The percentage of non-school going four to five year olds enrolled in the early years sector also increased over this two-year period from 73.6% to 78%.
While all teachers at primary and secondary level in Ireland are fully qualified, preschool services are delivered outside the formal education system. Nearly four-fifths (78%) of early years educators working with groups of three to five year olds in 2021 had a qualification at Level 6 or higher, while it was three-fifths (60%) of early years educators for younger age groups.”