News

Enrolment in upper secondary and tertiary education in autumn 2009

More than 107 thousand students at all levels
During the school year 2009-2010 the total number of students in Iceland at all school levels is 107.012. At the pre-primary level there are 18,699 pupils enrolled, 42,929 at the primary and lower secondary level, 26,364 at the upper secondary level and 19,020 at the post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary levels together. The number of students in Iceland has increased by 1,529 since last year, an increase of 1.4%.

Around 95% of 16 year olds attend school
The enrolment rate of 16 year olds in Iceland during the autumn term of 2009 was 95% when all modes of teaching are considered (i.e. day courses, evening school and distance learning). The enrolment rate of 16 year olds had been unchanged for the past three years at 93%. In autumn 2009 the enrolment rate had increased by two percentage points resulting in the highest national average so far.

There are noticeable differences in the enrolment rate between different parts of the country. The highest enrolment rate is in the Capital region excluding Reykjavik and in the Westfjords where the enrolment rate reaches 97%. The enrolment rate is lowest in the Southwest where it is 92%.

It is interesting to compare the enrolment rate for the 16, 17 and 18 year old cohorts. These figures give an idea about how many students drop out from upper secondary school during the first two years of study. The enrolment rate for 17 year olds in autumn 2009 is 90% and 81% for 18 year olds. This means that the enrolment rate has dropped by only 3 percentage points for the 17 year old cohort since 2008 and by 12 percentage points for the 18 year old cohort since 2007. This is a much smaller change between years than in recent years. A higher proportion of students had dropped out of school in previous years. Most likely this change in the enrolment rate is due to the difficult situation in the labour market.
 

Most tertiary level students study social sciences, business and law
The total number of students at the tertiary and doctorate levels in the autumn of 2009 was 18,051 and has increased by 1,107 or 6.5%. Of tertiary level students 37% (6,661) study in the fields of social sciences, business and law. The second largest field is education, with 16% of the students. For comparison, 9% of students at the tertiary level study engineering, manufacturing and construction and 8% are students in science, mathematics and computing.

Women are 63% of all students at the tertiary and doctorate levels of education in the autumn of 2009. They are more numerous than males in all fields of study with the exception of engineering and the sciences. Women are 34% of students in engineering, manufacturing and construction and 38% in science, mathematics and computing. The field with the largest proportion of women is health and welfare where 87% of students are female. In education women are 82% of all students.

 
About the data
Information is gathered directly from the schools and refers to the number of students in the middle of October. Each student is only counted once even if he is studying in two schools. The enrolment rate is computed by classifying students by age and domicile on December 1 each year and computing their proportion of the relevant age group.

Statistics
     Overview
     Upper secondary
     Universities