An analysis of the EU population in 2022

In 2022, almost one third (29.5%) of the EU population with a low level of education (The International Standard Classification of Education - ISCED, levels 0-2) was classified as poor. The rate was more than 3 times lower (9.2%) for the highly educated (ISCED levels 5-8), while the percentage for the medium educated (ISCED levels 3 and 4) was 18.0%.

Of the 26 EU Member States, most reported higher poverty rates among the low educated compared to the medium and high educated. Finland was the exception, with a slightly higher rate among the medium educated, reports Eurostat.

Among EU countries, Greece had the highest proportion of low-educated people (four-fifths; 81.6%) considered poor. Bulgaria (67.9%) and Slovakia (53.3%) followed, with the lowest percentages in Finland (7.3%), Luxembourg (10.0%) and Sweden (11.3%).

Most EU Member States reported significant differences between high and low educated population groups. The difference was at least 20 percentage points (pp) in 12 countries. The most significant differences were recorded in Bulgaria (47.7 pp), Hungary (41.5 pp) and Slovakia (39.5 pp), while the smallest were in Finland (4.5 pp), Denmark (5.9 pp) and Sweden (7.1 pp).