Education attainment

Access to education, skills development and learning throughout life

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Release date and time
15/09/2025 11:30am AEST

Released 15/09/2025

Metrics

  • Proportion of people aged 20-24 with a qualification at Year 12 or equivalent
  • Proportion of people aged 25-34 with a qualification at Certificate III level or above

Why this matters

Education and training creates opportunity for people, enables them to make a full contribution to the community and underpins the development of aspiration and purpose.

Progress

In 2024, the Survey of Education and Work found:

  • 86% of people aged 20-24 years held a qualification at Year 12 or equivalent, similar to 2023 (85%), and up from 2014 (77%)
  • 73% of people aged 25-34 years held a qualification at Certificate III level or above, similar to 2023 (73%), and up from 2014 (66%).

In 2022-23, the ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey found:

  • that since 2018-19, the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 20-24 years with a Year 12 or equivalent qualification had remained relatively steady, and
  • the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years with a Certificate III level or above had increased. 
  1. Further information about the certificate levels is available from the Australian Qualifications Framework.
  2. Data was obtained through a custom analysis of ABS Education and Work 2024.
Data Source
ABS Education and Work - Table 18 and Table 33

Differences across groups

In 2024:

  • 82% of males aged 20-24 held a qualification at Year 12 or equivalent, up from 72% in 2014
  • 91% of females aged 20-24 held a qualification at Year 12 or equivalent, up from 81% in 2014
  • 71% of males aged 25-34 held a qualification at Certificate III level or above, up from 65% in 2014
  • 76% of females aged 25-34 held a qualification at Certificate III level or above, up from 67% in 2014.

Disaggregation

Further information on educational attainment is available at ABS Education and Work, ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, Closing the Gap and Census 2021 Education and training.

Disaggregation available includes:

  • Sex
  • Age
  • Remoteness
  • Labour force status
  • Indigenous status.