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United States
Young women are more likely to achieve tertiary education than men in the United States. 57% of 25-34 year-old women had a tertiary qualification compared to 47% of their male peers in 2020. However, 25-64 year-old women with tertiary education earn only 71% as much as men with a similar education level.
The likelihood of being employed increases with the level of educational attainment, but more for native-born than for foreign-born adults. In the United States, 64% of foreign-born adults without upper secondary education were employed in 2020 compared to 47% of native-born adults. Meanwhile, 78% of foreign-born adults with a tertiary qualification were employed compared to 83% of native-born adults with a similar level of education.
The United States reported one of the highest levels of regional disparity in tertiary attainment among OECD countries with available data. Tertiary attainment varies from 32% in the state of West Virginia to 67% in the District of Columbia.
The United States spends more per student than on average in the OECD at all levels of education. In 2018, the United States spent USD 14 009 per student in primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education, 34% more than the OECD average (USD 10 454). At the tertiary level, the United States invested approximately twice as much per student (USD 34 036) than the OECD average (USD 17 065).
Teachers in the United States have some of the lowest actual salaries compared to those of tertiary-educated workers on average in the OECD. In 2019, US teachers’ salaries ranged from 59% to 66% of the earnings of tertiary-educated workers on average at pre-primary, primary and general secondary levels of education, whilst the OECD average range was from 81% to 96%.
In the United States, 1.8% of students in lower secondary and 2.7% in upper secondary initial education repeated a grade in 2019, compared to 1.9% and 3.0% respectively on average across OECD countries. Boys tend to perform less well than girls in school and are more likely to repeat a grade at lower secondary initial education. In the United States, 56% of repeaters at lower secondary level were boys, lower than the OECD average of 61%. At upper secondary level, the share of boys repeating a grade in the United States decreases to 53%, compared to 57% on average across OECD countries.
More women graduate from post-secondary non-tertiary vocational programmes in the United States than men. Women represented 57% of graduates from such programmes in the United States in 2019, a slightly higher proportion than the OECD average of 54%. However, there were significant gender differences across fields of study at this level. In 2019, women represented only 8% of graduates from engineering, manufacturing and construction vocational programmes in the United States, less than half of the OECD average of 17%. In contrast, 84% of graduates from vocational programmes in health and welfare were women in the United States, slightly higher than the OECD average of 80%.
Tertiary education has been expanding in the last decades, and, in 2020, 25-34 year-old women were more likely than men to achieve tertiary education in all OECD countries. In the United States, 57% of 25-34 year-old women had a tertiary qualification in 2020 compared to 47% of their male peers, while on average across OECD countries the shares were 52% among young women and 39% among young men.
Gender differences in the distribution of tertiary graduates across fields of study are significant. Women tend to be under-represented in certain fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) across most OECD countries. In 2019, only 13% of female tertiary graduates had studied STEM subjects in the OECD on average, compared to 39% of male tertiary graduates. The United States follows this pattern, with 12% of female tertiary students and 30% of male tertiary students graduating with STEM degrees. In contrast, 24% of female tertiary students graduated with health and welfare degrees in the United States, a sector traditionally dominated by women. This was much higher than the 8% of male tertiary students who graduated from this field of study.
Young women are less likely to be employed than young men, particularly those with lower levels of education. Only 41% of 25-34 year-old women with below upper secondary attainment were employed in 2020 compared to 70% of men in the United States. This gender difference is higher than the average across OECD countries, where 43% of women and 69% of men with below upper secondary attainment are employed.
In nearly all OECD countries and at all levels of educational attainment, 25-64 year-old women earn less than their male peers: their earnings correspond to 76%-78% of men’s earnings on average across OECD countries. This proportion varies more across educational attainment levels within countries than on average across OECD countries. In the United States, women with tertiary education have the lowest earnings compared to men with a similar education level, earning 71% as much, while those with below upper secondary education earn 77% as much (Figure 1).
On average across OECD countries with available data, 25-64 year-old women tend to participate slightly more in adult learning than men of the same age. This is the case in the United States, where 62% of women participated compared to 58% of men in 2017. Family reasons were reported as barriers to participation in adult learning (in formal and/or non-formal education and training) by 23% of women compared to 8% of men.
Socio-economic status may significantly impact students’ participation in education, particularly at levels of education that rely most heavily on private expenditure, such as early childhood education and care and tertiary education. In 2018, private sources accounted for 24% of total expenditure in pre-primary institutions in the United States, higher than the OECD average of 17%.
Tuition fees in the United States are among the highest for a bachelor's programme across countries with available data. National students were charged USD 9 212 per year for a bachelor's degree in public institutions in 2018/19, 16% more than they were charged on average in 2009/10. These were the second highest tuition fees charged by public institutions in OECD countries with available data, which ranged from USD 0 to USD 12 330 (Figure 2). Meanwhile, national students were charged USD 31 875 per year for a bachelor’s degree in independent private institutions. These were by far the highest fees among OECD countries with data, charging over three times the amount of the next highest fees (USD 10 342 in Spain). At the same time, 85% of national tertiary students benefited from direct public financial support in the United States in 2015/16. On average, students benefitting from such support received USD 2 178 in public grants or scholarships and USD 4 600 in public or government-guaranteed private loans.
International student mobility at the tertiary level has risen steadily reaching about 976 900 students in the United States and representing 5% of tertiary students in 2019. The largest share of international tertiary students studying in the United States comes from China. Students from low and lower-income countries are generally less likely to study abroad. In 2019, 29% of international students in OECD countries came from low and lower-middle income countries. Similarly, 26% of international students studying in the United States come from low and lower-middle income countries.
Large differences in educational attainment may lead to starker earnings inequality in many countries. In the United States, 41% of 25-64 year-old adults with below upper secondary attainment earned at or below half the median earnings in 2019, above the OECD average of 27%.
On average across the OECD, foreign-born adults (25-64 year-olds) account for 22% of all adults with below upper secondary attainment, 14% of those attaining upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment, and 18% of tertiary-educated adults. In the United States as in most OECD countries, the share of foreign-born adults among all adults with a given level of educational attainment was the highest among adults with below upper secondary attainment (49%) in 2020.
Foreign-born adults have more difficulty finding a job than their native-born peers, as they face various challenges, such as discrepancies in credential recognition, skills, and language. Thus, foreign-born workers are likely to have a lower reservation wage (the lowest wage rate at which a worker would be willing to accept a particular type of job), and this implies that they are more likely to accept any job they can get. This may explain the fact that, in many countries, the employment rate for foreign-born adults with low educational attainment is higher than the rate for their native-born peers. On average across OECD countries, among adults without upper secondary attainment, 57% of native-born adults are employed, compared to 61% of foreign-born adults. In the United States, the employment rate of foreign-born adults without upper secondary attainment was 64% in 2020, higher than that of their native-born peers (47%).
The likelihood of being employed increases with the level of educational attainment, but foreign-born adults with tertiary attainment generally have lower employment prospects than their native-born peers. On average across OECD countries, 86% of native-born tertiary-educated adults are employed compared to 79% for foreign-born tertiary-educated adults. In the United States, among tertiary-educated adults, 83% of native-born adults and 78% of foreign-born adults are employed. Since foreign-born adults who arrived in the country at an early age have spent some years in the education system of the host country and gained credentials recognised by the host country, their labour-market outcomes are better than of those who arrived at a later age with a foreign qualification. In the United States, among foreign-born adults with tertiary attainment, 82% of those who arrived by the age of 15 are employed, while 77% of those who arrived in the country at age 16 or later are employed.
Foreign-born young adults (15-29 year-olds) are also more likely to be neither employed nor in education or training (NEET) than native-born young adults. On average across OECD countries, 18.8% of foreign-born and 13.7% of native-born adults are NEET. In the United States, the difference is 4 percentage points (16.8% compared to 13%). Early arrival in the country is generally associated with a lower risk of becoming NEET. In the United States, the share of NEETs among foreign-born young adults who arrived by the age of 15 is 14%, while the share of NEETs among those who arrived at age 16 or later is 21%.
In many OECD countries, foreign-born adults earn less than native-born adults. This pay gap may narrow with higher levels of educational attainment. On average across OECD countries, foreign-born adults with below secondary attainment working full-time earn 89% as much as their native-born peers, while this gap disappears among tertiary-educated adults. In the United States, in 2019, among adults with below upper secondary attainment, the earnings of foreign-born full-time workers represented 83% that their native-born peers, 84% among adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment, and 107% among those with a tertiary-education.
Due to the federal nature of the United States, states and local education agencies are the primary decision makers, while individual schools have joint or independent decision-making authority for some decisions. Full-time compulsory general education spans over 12 grades with similar number of school days per year, but variation in total instruction hours ranges from 8 640 hours in New Jersey to 15 120 hours in Texas.
National level data often hide important regional inequalities in children’s access and participation to education. In general, inequalities across regions tend to widen at non-compulsory levels of education. For example, in the majority of countries, the variation in enrolment rate of 3-5 year-olds is often greater than the variation among 6-14 year-olds. This is the case in the United States, where the enrolment rate of 3-5 year-olds varies from 45% in the state of North Dakota to 88% in the District of Columbia whereas the enrolment of 6-14 year-olds varies from 95% to 99% across states. Similarly, the enrolment rate of 15-19 year-olds varies from 76% to 93% in the United States.
Tertiary attainment may vary significantly within a country. In the United States, tertiary attainment of 25-64 year-old adults varies from 32% in the state of West Virginia to 67% in the District of Columbia, one of the highest variations across OECD countries with available data.
On average across OECD and partner countries with subnational data on labour-force status, there is more regional variation in employment rates among those with lower levels of education. In the United States, there is a difference of 32 percentage points in the employment rate of adults with below upper secondary education between different states in the country, ranging from 41% in West Virginia to 73% in Wyoming. In comparison, employment rates for tertiary-educated adults ranged from 80% in Alaska, Mississippi, and Nevada to 90% in Nebraska and the District of Columbia.
The proportion of young people who are NEET shows significant subnational as well as national variation across OECD and partner countries. In the United States, the proportion in the state with the highest share of 18-24 year-old NEETs (Alaska) is 15 percentage points higher than in the state with the lowest share (North Dakota).
The spread of COVID-19 has continued to impede access to in-person education in many countries around the world in 2021. By mid-May 2021, 37 OECD and partner countries had experienced periods of full school closure since the start of 2020.
In the United States, responses to the pandemic varied significantly across the country and decisions over whether to close schools and for how long were not taken at the national level. Nevertheless, data from the nationwide 2020 Household Pulse Survey (HPS) indicates that there was widespread disruption to children’s learning due to COVID-19. 67% of adults with children enrolled in school stated that their classes had moved to distance learning in September 2020 (Irwin et al., 2021[1]). 91% of adults in the survey reported that their children always or usually had access to computers for educational purposes. However, this varied by income group from 83% of adults in the lowest income group to 98% in the highest (Irwin et al., 2021[1]).
Higher education has also been significantly affected by the pandemic in the United States. Out of the adults surveyed in HPS who had household members planning to take postsecondary classes in autumn 2020, 45% reported that the classes would be in a different format, e.g., online instead of in-person. Furthermore, 31% stated that all plans to take postsecondary classes in autumn 2020 had been cancelled for at least one household member (Irwin et al., 2021[1]).
As part of many countries’ efforts to counter the spread of COVID-19, restrictions have been placed on borders and it has become increasingly difficult to travel internationally. This has significant implications for the internationalization of tertiary education as students face uncertainty over whether they will be able to visit and experience life in the country where their studies are based. Some countries have faced a sizeable decrease in the number of international students admitted, though others seem to have experienced increases (OECD, 2021[2]). In the United States, there was a 16% decline in the number of international students studying either in the country or at U.S. institutions online during the fall 2020 semester due to the COVID-19 crisis.
The impact of the pandemic on the economy has raised concerns about the prospects of young adults, especially those leaving education earlier than others. In the United States, the unemployment rate among 25-34 year-olds with below upper secondary attainment was 8.7% in 2020, a decrease of 0.8 percentage points from the previous year. This is in contrast to an increase seen in the OECD average, where the youth unemployment rate of 15.1% in 2020 represented an increase of 1.9 percentage points from 2019.
Despite the impact of the crisis on employment, the share of NEETs among 18-24 year-olds did not greatly increase in most OECD and partner countries during the first year of the COVID-19 crisis. On average, the share of 18-24 year-old NEETs in OECD countries rose from 14.4% in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020. The increase was higher in the United States, where the share of 18-24 year-old NEETs increased from 14.6% in 2019 to 19.3% in 2020 (Figure 3).
Annual expenditure per student on educational institutions provides an indication of the investment countries make on each student. In 2018, public expenditure on primary to tertiary educational institutions per full-time student in the United States was USD 12 687 compared to USD 10 000 on average across OECD countries.
Expenditure on core educational services such as instruction and teaching make up the largest share of education expenditure. However, ancillary services (such as student welfare) and research and development (R&D) activities also influence the level of expenditure per student. In primary to tertiary education, 85% of institutions’ expenditure per student in the United States is devoted to core educational services (compared to 89% on average across OECD countries). This share is generally lower at the tertiary level because of the expenditure on R&D, including in the United States where 75% of total expenditure is devoted to core educational services.
The provision of education across public and private institutions influences the allocation of resources between levels of education and types of institution. In 2018, the United States spent USD 14 009 per student at primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education, USD 3 555 higher than the OECD average of USD 10 454. At tertiary level, the United States invested USD 34 036 per student, USD 16 971 more than the OECD average. Expenditure per student on public educational institutions is higher than on private institutions on average across OECD countries. However, this is not the case in the United States, where total expenditure on primary to tertiary public institutions amounts to USD 17 237 per student, compared to USD 27 061 on private institutions.
Between 2012 and 2018, expenditure per student from primary to tertiary education increased at an average annual growth rate of 1.6% across OECD countries. In the United States, expenditure on educational institutions grew at an average annual rate of 1.3%, while the number of students remained fairly stable over this period. This resulted in an average annual growth rate of 1.3% in expenditure per student over this period.
Among OECD countries, the United States spent the sixth highest proportion of its GDP on primary to tertiary educational institutions. In 2018, the United States spent on average 6% of GDP on primary to tertiary educational institutions, which is 1.1 percentage points higher than the OECD average. Across levels of education, the United States devoted a slightly above-average share of GDP at non-tertiary levels and an above-average share at tertiary level (Figure 4).
The share of capital costs on total expenditure on primary to tertiary institutions in the United States is higher than the OECD average. At primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary level, capital costs account for 10% of total spending on educational institutions, 1 percentage points above the OECD average (8%). At the tertiary level, capital costs represent 10%, slightly lower than the average across OECD countries of 11%.
Compensation of teachers and other staff employed in educational institutions represents the largest share of current expenditure from primary to tertiary education. In 2018, the United States allocated 74% of its current expenditure to staff compensation, the same as the average across OECD countries. Staff compensation tends to make up a smaller share of current expenditure on tertiary institutions due to the higher costs of facilities and equipment at this level. In the United States, staff compensation represents 65% of current expenditure on tertiary institutions compared to 81% at non-tertiary levels. On average across OECD countries, the share is 68% at tertiary level and 77% at non-tertiary level.
The salaries of school staff, and in particular teachers and school heads, represent the largest single expenditure in formal education. Their salary levels also have an impact on the attractiveness of the teaching profession. In most OECD countries and economies, statutory salaries of teachers (and school heads) in public educational institutions increase with the level of education they teach, and also with experience. On average, statutory salaries of teachers with maximum qualifications at the top of their salary scales (maximum salaries) were between 86% and 91% higher than those of teachers with the minimum qualifications at the start of their career (minimum salaries) at pre-primary (ISCED 02), primary and general lower and upper secondary levels in 2020. In the United States, maximum salaries were 76% to 80% higher than minimum salaries at each level of education. However, most teachers were paid between these minimum and maximum salaries.
Between 2005 and 2020, the statutory salaries of teachers with 15 years of experience and the most prevalent qualifications increased between 2% and 3% at primary and general lower and upper secondary levels, on average across OECD countries with data for all reference years, despite a decrease of salaries following the 2008 financial crisis. In the United States, salaries of teachers decreased by 6% on average at the primary level but increased by respectively 8% and 2% at the lower and upper secondary levels. At the same time, statutory salaries vary at subnational level in the United States. For example, the starting salary of a primary school teacher varied by 81% (USD 27 438) across subnational entities, ranging from USD 33 968 in Oklahoma to USD 61 406 in New York.
Teachers’ actual salaries reflect their statutory salaries and additional work-related payments. Average actual salaries also depend on the characteristics of the teaching population such as their age, level of experience and qualification level. On average across OECD countries, teachers’ average actual salaries were USD 40 707, USD 45 687, USD 47 988 and USD 51 749 at the pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary level respectively (Figure 5). In the United States, teachers’ average actual salaries amount to USD 54 934 at the pre-primary level (ISCED 02), USD 55 980 at the primary level, USD 58 625 at the general lower secondary level and USD 61 162 at the general upper secondary level. Similar to statutory salaries, there are also subnational differences in the actual salaries of teachers in the United States. At the primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary levels, teachers' actual salaries in states at the top of the range were more than twice as high as the actual salaries of states at the bottom.
Teachers’ average actual salaries remained lower than those of tertiary-educated workers in almost all countries, and at almost all levels of education. Teachers’ average actual salaries at pre-primary (ISCED 02), primary and general secondary levels of education are between 81% and 96% of the earnings of tertiary-educated workers on average across OECD countries and economies. In the United States, the proportion ranged from 59% to 66% at pre-primary, primary and general secondary levels of education.
However, there are significant differences between men and women in relative salaries of teachers compared to salaries of tertiary educated workers. Due to the gender gap in earnings across the labour market, the ratio of teachers’ average actual salaries to those of tertiary educated workers is usually higher for women, and lower for men. In the United States, the proportion ranges from 73% to 79% for women (98% to 110% on average across OECD countries and economies), and from 54% to 58% for men (76% to 85% on average across OECD countries and economies) in primary and general secondary education.
Women are over-represented among primary, lower secondary and upper secondary teachers (representing respectively 82%, 68% and 60% of teachers at these levels on average across OECD countries in 2019). However, women are under-represented in tertiary education (44% of tertiary teachers on average). In the United States, the proportion of female teachers ranged from 87% at the primary level to 67% at lower secondary level, 58% at upper secondary level, and 50% at the tertiary level in 2019.
The average number of teaching hours per year required of a typical teacher in public educational institutions in OECD countries tends to decrease as the level of education increases: it ranged from 989 hours at pre-primary level (ISCED 02), to 791 hours at primary level, 723 hours at lower secondary level (general programmes) and 685 hours at upper secondary level (general programmes) in 2020. In the United States, teachers are required to teach 1 011 hours per year at pre-primary level, 1 004 hours per year at primary level, 966 hours at lower secondary level (general programmes) and 966 hours at upper secondary level (general programmes).
In primary and secondary education, about 35% of teachers are at least 50 years old on average across OECD countries and may reach retirement age in the next decade, while the size of the school-age population is projected to increase in some countries, putting many governments under pressure to recruit and train new teachers. In 2019, 28% of primary teachers in the United States were at least 50 years old, which was lower than the OECD average of 33%. On average across OECD countries, the proportion of teachers aged at least 50 years old increases with higher levels of education taught, to 36% in lower secondary education and 40% in upper secondary education. In the United States, this proportion varies from 28% at lower secondary level to 33% at upper secondary level.
References
Irwin, V. et al. (2021), Report on the Condition of Education 2021, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
OECD (2021), Education at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris.
OECD (2021), “Regional education”, OECD Regional Statistics (database), https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/213e806c-en (accessed on 27 July 2021).
OECD (2021), The State of Higher Education: One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, OECD Publishing, Paris.
For more information on Education at a Glance 2021 and to access the full set of Indicators, see: https://doi.org/10.1787/b35a14e5-en
For more information on the methodology used during the data collection for each indicator, the references to the sources and the specific notes for each country, see Annex 3 (https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/EAG2021_Annex3.pdf).
For general information on the methodology, please refer to the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics: Concepts, Standards, Definitions and Classifications (https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en).
Updated data can be found on line at https://doi.org/10.1787/eag-data-en and by following the StatLinks 2under the tables and charts in the publication.
Data on subnational regions for selected indicators are available in the OECD Regional Statistics (database) (OECD, 2021). When interpreting the results on subnational entities, readers should take into account that the population size of subnational entities can vary widely within countries. Also, regional disparities tend to be higher when more subnational entities are used in the analysis.
Explore, compare and visualise more data and analysis using the Education GPS:
https://gpseducation.oecd.org/
The data on educational responses during COVID-19 were collected and processed by the OECD based on the Survey on Joint National Responses to COVID-19 School Closures, a collaborative effort conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS); the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the World Bank; and the OECD.
This work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.
This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
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