Highest Education Attained

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Population and Education, Social Statistics.
Eva Lotti Hansen
+45 21 59 99 06

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Highest Education Attained 2023

The purpose of the statistics on educational attainment is to give an overall statistical description of the educational level of the population at any given time. The primary data source to these statistics is the Student Register with data from 1970 onwards. In addition, the Qualification Register is used. Since the Student Register is the primary source for information, the Attainment Register gives nearly complete coverage from 1970 onwards. There is, however information before this time coming from The Qualification Register.

Statistical presentation

The Attainment Register gathers information about the highest completed education for each single person based on the information in the Student Register and the Qualification Register. It is a longitudinal register based on an assessment of each person's education "career" and shows how the qualification career develops over time. The register is formed by interpreting the qualification career (skills in chronological order) in order to determine a change in the skill level. Once a year a status register is also produced with the population and information about education the 30. September the current year.

Statistical processing

The Attainment Register is a longitudinal register based on a assessment of each persons education career in The Student Register and The Qualification Register. It shows how the qualification career develop over time, and it is updated once a year. The status register is produced on the basis of the longitudinal register and contains information about the population and their highest completed education per. September 30 the given year.

Relevance

There is a great variety of users. The information is generally used in connection with describing the population or sections hereof. The register is used in connection with status reports for other statistical fields. Data reports are thus submitted for (mainly on the population's highest level of education completed) a wide number of integration registers operated by Statistics Denmark. Furthermore, the register is frequently used in connection with external service activities order by Danish ministries, municipalities, research institutions, professional organization, private enterprises, private individuals and, not least, requests made by the news media.

Accuracy and reliability

The Accuracy and reliability vary depending on the source of information. More than 80 pct. of the information comes from administrative sources, such as student systems of educational institutions, which are highly reliable. These sources have priority one when the registry is created and will be used if there is information from one of these sources. Other sources are not so closely linked to the education programs and will often be less reliable. Examples of these sources are the surveys of immigrants' education and the population and housing census in 1970, based on self-reported education. In addition, information is imputed for persons who do not respond in the study of immigrants' education. The imputed data is useful in overall statistical statements, but cannot be considered as valid information on individuals' educational attainment.

In connection with the annual reports from the education institutions there is information which also relate to previous years. These delayed notifications concern particularly the last year.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics are published around 6 months after the end of the reference time. The statistics are usually published without delay in relation to the scheduled date.

Comparability

The longitudinal register is produced once a year and the entire period is thus calculated in the same way. Based on the longitudinal register, a status register is produced with the population per. September 30 that year. In the event of significant changes in the way the longitudinal register is produced, the status registers for all years will be reproduced. It happens that an education changes level from one year to the next. Typically, this will not cause a reproduction of all the status registers and therefore affect comparability over time. Labor force survey provide information too Eurostat about the educational attainment level and this is these figures that are used for international comparison of the attainment level.

Accessibility and clarity

Statistics are published once a year in "News from Statistics Denmark" . At the same time data are released in the Statbank and on the homepage: Homepage Information also appears in the annual publications Statistical 10-Year Review and the Statistical Yearbook.