Human Capital Notes
Human development in Spain: Education
Abstract
This note provides an overview of how education has developed in Spain during the last three decades. Along with the data on literacy and enrollment rates used by the United Nations in the construction of the Human Development Index, other variables are also used that show the shortcomings and progress of the Spanish education system in that period. Results demonstrate that the Spanish dropout rate (31% in 2007) is double the average rate found in the EU-27, with the North of Spain showing better results. On the other hand, a rapid increase in the percentage of people with post-compulsory education can be observed in the period analyzed. Thus, 2007 saw that 64.8% of young people aged 20-29 had completed post-compulsory studies. The differences among regions are indeed striking: while in 2007 56% of Madrid's population had post-compulsory studies, in Extremadura the percentage was 31%. This note includes data on education from the study Human development in Spain: 1980-2007.