Education

Compulsory education

SE.COM.DURS · yrs

Annual series published by the World Bank. The chart carries the trajectory, the table carries the year by year figures, and the definition at the foot of the page is the World Bank's own, quoted as it stands.

Countries compared

8 countries compared out of 142 available.

Latest known value: 13 yrs for Germany in 2025, over a series running from 1998 to 2025 and 8 countries compared, from the highest (Venezuela, 17 yrs) to the lowest (South Sudan, 8 yrs).

Compare with the other education indicators

Latest known valueclick to hide

Year by year values

Click the Year header to reverse the order. An empty cell means the World Bank publishes nothing for that country that year.

Annual values by country
	Germany	Italy	Spain	Netherlands	United States	China	South Sudan	Venezuela
2025	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2024	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2023	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2022	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2021	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2020	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2019	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2018	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2017	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	17 yrs
2016	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2015	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2014	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2013	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2012	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2011	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2010	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2009	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2008	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs	8 yrs	14 yrs
2007	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2006	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2005	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2004	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2003	13 yrs	12 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2002	13 yrs	8 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2001	13 yrs	8 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
2000	13 yrs	8 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
1999	13 yrs	8 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		14 yrs
1998	13 yrs	8 yrs	10 yrs	13 yrs	12 yrs	9 yrs		6 yrs
1997				13 yrs

World Bank definition

Compulsory education, duration (years)

Duration of compulsory education is the number of years that children are legally obliged to attend school.

Text published by the World Bank for indicator SE.COM.DURS, reproduced unchanged.

The same indicator across Europe & Central Asia

Latest known value for each country in the region, ranked from highest to lowest. Click a country to add it to your comparison: there is no longer any limit on how many countries you compare.

The same indicator across Europe & Central Asia

Source: World Bank, World Bank Open Data Annual series, fetched server side and cached for 24 hours. The World Bank is never called from your browser.