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The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s annual “Education at a Glance” report, an encyclopedic collection of education-related statistics across 46 countries, is being published today. The report includes statistics for the 34 countries that belong to the OECD -- whose membership is heavily tilted toward Western Europe and North America -- as well as for Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Among the findings, the U.S. ranked fifth among the 34 OECD countries in terms of higher education attainment rates.
Unemployment rates for Americans varied according to level of education -- ranging from 3.7 percent for those who have completed higher education to 10.6 percent for those without a high school diploma. All rates were below the OECD averages -- a contrast to 2010, when the U.S. had above-average unemployment rates in all categories.
Adults in the U.S. with a higher education degree earn 76 percent more than their counterparts with just a high school diploma, a statistic that exceeds the average wage premium across OECD countries (60 percent) by a considerable amount. American students with master’s and doctoral degrees earn 143 percent more than their counterparts with just a high school diploma.
In terms of higher education characteristics, the report notes that American higher education has comparatively high rates of part-time study. The number of graduates from U.S. science and engineering programs lags OECD averages: for example, 17 percent of all bachelor’s degree recipients in the U.S. have studied science or engineering, compared to a 22 percent average across OECD countries.
The U.S. remains the leading destination for international students, hosting 19 percent of all international students in 2013.
