We construct a complete data set of historical enrollment ratios, subdivided by education level and gender, for 89 countries from 1820 to 1945 at five-year intervals. The original historical data on school enrollments are compiled from various sources. See data sources.
We construct estimates for a significant number of missing cells, especially in the cases of developing countries or former colonies by using interpolation and extrapolation techniques as explained in details in Barro and Lee (2015, chapter 2) and Lee J. and H. Lee (2015). The historical estimates for 1820–1945 are combined with information from UNESCO publications since 1950 to get a full time series on enrollment ratios up to 2010.
Download the list of variables and countries in the dataset.
The figures for trend in schoolenrollments, disaggregated by education level and gender, for individual countries from 1820 to 2010 are also downloadable. Every marker in the figures indicates the availability of the original enrollment data for the specific year in the individual countries.
Full Dataset
Enrollment Ratios by Level, 1820-2010
Download data for total, female and male population in dta, xls, or csv format.
Total population
Female population
Male population
Trends in Enrollments Ratios by Country
Download figures for trend in school enrollments, disaggregated by education level and gender, for individual countries from 1820 to 2010 in pdf format.