Portugal: Over 44% of Population Holds a Higher Education Degree

More specifically, 44 per cent of the resident population of Portugal aged between 30 and 34 are holders of a tertiary education degree – surpassing the 40 per cent target set by Europe Strategy 2020 by four per cent, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.

The Europe Strategy 2020 is a plan approved by the European Commission that intends to increase the suitability, inclusivity and growth across all 27-nation-bloc. Concretely, the targets that all Member States should’ve reached by 2020 included the requirement for at least 40 per cent of the younger generation to have a tertiary degree, among 75 per cent of the population being employed.

Rates of the population aged 30-34 with higher education degrees reach 44 per cent in 2021, increasing by four per cent compared to 2020 and 20 per cent since 2010. In addition, the unemployment rate among graduates in Portugal has dropped to its minimum value of 5.3 per cent.

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More specifically, Statistics Portugal (INE) data shows a schooling rate of 42 per cent in the last quarter of 2021, corresponding to an average annual schooling rate of 44 per cent for the year 2021. In addition, the figure shows a growth of 12 percentage points compared to 2015 and 20 percentage points compared to 2010.

Furthermore, INE data shows that the employed population with tertiary education in the country has jumped by 13 per cent between 2020 and 2021 – counting 200,000 more graduates, increasing the number of workers with higher education from 1.45 to 1.65 million.

In general, the higher education rate for the employed population in Portugal increased to 34 per cent, which equals nine percentage points compared to 2015. Moreover, it shows a surge of 520,000 graduates employed between 2015 and 2021. As per unemployment rates, the current rate of 5.3 per cent is below the national average of 6.6 per cent.

Furthermore, the publication shows that the Lisbon Metropolitan Area has the highest educated, employed population rates in the last quarter of 2021. More specifically, Lison leads the list with 44 per cent of the employed population with higher studies residing there, followed by the Center region (32 per cent), the North region and Algarve (31 per cent), the Autonomous Region of Madeira (27 per cent), Alentejo (26 per cent) and the Region Autonomous Region of the Azores (22 cent).

In addition, the North region data reveals a surge of ten percentage points followed by Algarve with nine percentage points compared to the corresponding time in 2015.