Dropout in upper secondary education has been decreasing since the year 2003. Four years after entering, 29.6% of new entrants in 2003 had dropped out of education without graduating, but 19.9% of new entrants in the autumn of 2016. Almost 62% of new entrants in 2016 had graduated in 2020 while just over 18% were still in education without having graduated. This is the lowest dropout rate, and the highest completion rate, since Statistics Iceland began publishing data on new entrants in 1995.
Four years after entering, almost 25% of males had dropped out without graduating, while the proportion of females was 15%. The dropout rate was higher among students in vocational education than in general education and one out of three new entrants into vocational education in 2016 had dropped out without graduating four years later. In addition, the dropout rate was higher in schools outside the capital region than within it. However, the dropout rate in vocational education was lower in schools outside the capital city region than in schools within the region.
Lower dropout rate among immigrants
Just over 46% of immigrants who entered day courses at the upper secondary level for the first time in the autumn of 2016 had graduated in 2020. That is the lowest dropout rate for immigrants since Statistics Iceland started publishing these data, although the rate is considerably higher than among new entrants with Icelandic background. The dropout rate was almost 18% among those who had no foreign background and just over 13% among students born abroad with Icelandic background.
What is dropout?
Dropout from education can be defined in a number of ways. The method used for these data is to follow up on new entrants in day courses in the autumn after four years, six years and seven years, the so-called cohort rate.
About the data
New entrants are students who were registered in programmes at the upper secondary level of education in the autumn for the first time, since the start of the Statistics Iceland Student register in 1975. All day course students of all ages are included. Graduates are those who have graduated from upper secondary programmes of at least two years’ duration. Students still in education are those students who are studying in day courses, evening courses or by distance learning at the upper secondary or tertiary levels of education in Iceland in the autumn, who have not graduated. Dropouts are those who have not graduated and are not in education. Statistics Iceland has data on the completion rate and dropout at the upper secondary level starting with new entrants in 1995.
Information on the background of students is derived from population data. Immigrants are those who were born abroad and have both parents of foreign origin. Exchange students, who stay in Iceland for one year, are included in the data. Second generation immigrants are those who were born in Iceland of two immigrant parents. Other categories are those who have no foreign background, were born in Iceland with one parent born abroad, born abroad with Icelandic background or born abroad with one parent born abroad.