EVALUATION OF EXISTING EUROSTAT STATISTICS

2. ACCESS TO EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) establishes a clear framework for access to education in Article 24. It recognises education as a fundamental human right for persons with disabilities and requires countries to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels.

Indicators measuring participation in school and education among persons with disabilities were also recommended in the earlier study by the Nordic Welfare Centre (Johanna Jokinen et al., 2021) on monitoring implementation of the UNCRPD and the 2030 Agenda. The report also recommended indicators on the participation of children with disabilities. Eurostat does not publish an indicator on children´s access to education and training that meets the Nordic Statistics Database criteria for inclusion.

The data in this section come from the EU Labour Force Survey, which covers persons aged 15 years and older living in private households .The survey is conducted every two years, and the data presented here refer to the 2024 survey, except for Iceland, where the latest available data are from 2022. The survey adopted the disability measure in 2022. To date, only two time points are available.

All indicators are based on the Global Activity Limitation Index (GALI).

Indicator	Data source	Disability measurement	Periodicity of data collection	Population
1. Tertiary educational attainment	EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) [edat_lfs_9920]	GALI	Every 2 years	25–34 years
2. Participation in education and training during the previous 4 weeks	EU-LFS [trng_lfs_16]	GALI	Every 2 years	18–64 years
3. Share of early leavers from education and training	EU-LFS [edat_lfse_40]	GALI	Every 2 years	18–24 years
4. Young persons neither in education nor training (NEET)	EU-LFS [edat_lfse_39]	GALI	Every 2 years	15–29 years

Table 4: Indicators identified as strong candidates for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics Database on access to education and training.

Indicator	Data source	Disability measurement	Periodicity of data collection	Population
1. Tertiary educational attainment	EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) [edat_lfs_9920]	GALI	Every 2 years	25–34 years
2. Participation in education and training during the previous 4 weeks	EU-LFS [trng_lfs_16]	GALI	Every 2 years	18–64 years
3. Share of early leavers from education and training	EU-LFS [edat_lfse_40]	GALI	Every 2 years	18–24 years
4. Young persons neither in education nor training (NEET)	EU-LFS [edat_lfse_39]	GALI	Every 2 years	15–29 years

Table 4: Indicators identified as strong candidates for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics database on access to education and training.

Figure 8: Share of persons with tertiary educational attainment by level of disability among persons aged 25–34 years living in private households.

Most recent year available (2024 for Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and EU27; 2022 for Iceland).

Source: Eurostat [edat_lfs_9920]

The indicator on tertiary educational attainment by level of disability, shown in Figure 8, is the first strong candidate for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics Database in this section. The graph shows that persons aged 25–34 years with disabilities are less likely to have higher educational attainment than those without disabilities. In the Nordic countries, the highest share of persons with disabilities who have completed university education is observed in Norway, while the lowest share is observed in Iceland. The graph also shows that the share of young persons with disabilities who have attained tertiary education in Denmark and Iceland is lower than the EU27 average.

Figure 9: Share of persons participating in education and training during the previous four weeks by level of disability among persons aged 18–64 years living in private households.

Most recent year available (2024 for Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and EU27; 2022 for Iceland).

Source: Eurostat [trng_lfs_16]

The second strong candidate for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics Database in this section is the indicator on participation in education and training during the previous four weeks, shown in Figure 9. The graph shows that persons with disabilities are less likely to participate in education and training than persons without disabilities. The widest gap is observed in Denmark and Norway, where the difference is 12 percentage points, while the narrowest gap is observed in Finland, where the difference is 6 percentage points. In all Nordic countries, the share of persons participating in education and training is significantly higher than the EU average.

Figure 10: Share of early leavers from education and training by level of disability among persons aged 18–24 years living in private households.

Most recent year available (2024 for Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and EU27; 2022 for Iceland).

Source: Eurostat [edat_lfse_40]

The indicator on early leavers from education and training by level of disability, shown in Figure 10, is also a strong candidate for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics Database. The graph shows that in all Nordic countries, young persons with disabilities are more likely to leave education and training than their peers without disabilities. The widest gap is observed in Denmark, where the difference is 15 percentage points. The narrowest gap is observed in Finland, where the difference is 6 percentage points; Finland also has the smallest share of early leavers. The EU27 average shows a larger gap between young persons with disabilities and those without disabilities than observed in any of the Nordic countries.

Figure 11: Share of persons neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET rates) by level of disability among persons aged 15–29 years living in private households.

Most recent year available (2024 for Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and EU27; 2022 for Iceland).

Source: Eurostat [edat_lfse_39]

The last strong candidate for inclusion in the Nordic Statistics Database in this section is the indicator on young persons neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET rates) by level of disability, shown in Figure 11. The graph shows that in all Nordic countries, the NEET rate for persons with disabilities is significantly higher than for persons without disabilities. The widest gap is observed in Denmark, where the difference is 20 percentage points, which also corresponds to the EU27 average. The narrowest gap is observed in Finland, where the difference is 11 percentage points.