Malta with the lowest persons in tertiary education and the highest percentage of school leavers

Amid all talk of economic excellence, two statistics that were issued by Eurostat yesterday show the other side of the coin, with regards to Malta and educational attainment.

For Malta has among the lowest percentage of adults in tertiary education and also the highest per- centage of school leavers in the EU.

In 2016, at least half of the population aged 30 to 34 had completed tertiary education in Lithuania (58.7%), Luxembourg (54.6%), Cyprus (53.4%), Ireland (52.9%) as well as Sweden (51.0%).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions were observed in Romania (25.6%), Italy (26.2%), Croatia (29.5%) and Malta (29.8%).

Compared with 2006, the proportion of early leavers from education and training decreased in 2016 in all Member States for which the time-series is available, except the Czech Republic, Roma- nia and Slovakia.

In 2016, the lowest proportions of 'early school leavers' were observed in Croatia (2.8%), Lithuania (4.8%), Slovenia (4.9%) and Poland (5.2%), while the highest shares were recorded in Malta (19.6%), Spain (19.0%) and Romania (18.5%).