Canada at a Glance, 2023
Education

Table 16
Educational attainment of the working age population
Table summary
This table displays the results of Educational attainment of the working age population 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
	percent
	2006	2011	2016	2021
No certificate, diploma or degree	15	13	12	10
High (secondary) school diploma or equivalency certificate	24	23	24	23
Apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma	12	12	11	10
College, CEGEP or other non-university certificate or diploma	20	21	22	21
University certificate or diploma below bachelor level	5	5	3	3
Bachelor’s degree or higher	23	26	29	33
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 98-10-0384-01 Highest level of education by census year: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations.

Table 17
Public and private expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of gross domestic product, by level of education, 2020/2021
Table summary
This table displays the results of Public and private expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of gross domestic product All levels of education combined (including undistributed programs), All primary and secondary education , All postsecondary , Short cycle tertiary (college) and postsecondary non-tertiary and Bachelor's, master's, doctoral or equivalent, calculated using Percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).
	percent
	All levels of education combined (including undistributed programs)	All primary and secondary education	All postsecondary	Short cycle tertiary (college) and postsecondary non-tertiary	Bachelor's, master's, doctoral or equivalent
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — average	5.1	3.6	1.5	0.1	1.4
Canada	6.6	3.8	2.9	1.0	1.8
Newfoundland and Labrador	5.5	2.9	2.6	0.7	1.9
Prince Edward Island	7.5	4.2	3.3	1.3	1.9
Nova Scotia	8.2	4.4	3.8	0.9	3.0
New Brunswick	6.7	4	2.7	0.9	1.8
Quebec	6.9	4.1	2.9	1.1	1.8
Ontario	6.9	3.8	3.1	1.1	2.0
Manitoba	7.5	4.9	2.6	0.9	1.7
Saskatchewan	6.6	4.2	2.4	0.7	1.7
Alberta	5.6	3.3	2.3	0.8	1.5
British Columbia	6.0	3.0	3.0	1.1	1.8
Yukon	6.5	5.0	1.5	0.2	1.3
Northwest Territories	8.2	6.5	1.7	1.7	Note ..: not available for a specific reference period
Nunavut	6.8	5.3	1.5	1.5	Note ..: not available for a specific reference period
.. not available for a specific reference period. Source: Statistics Canada. Table 37-10-0211-01 Public and private expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP, by level of education.

In Canada, a high proportion of young people complete their studies within the expected time, which is three years after starting Grade 10 (or “Secondary 3” in Québec). In 2019/2020, during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, 84% of young people graduated on time, up from 81% in 2018/2019.

Language selection