More than 105 thousand students at all levels
During the school year 2008-2009 the total number of students in Iceland at all school levels is 105,483. At the pre-primary level there are 18,278 children enrolled, 43,511 at the primary and lower secondary levels, 25,590 at the upper secondary level and 18,104 at the post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary levels together. The number of students in Iceland has increased by 1,265 since 2007, an increase of 1.2%.
Approximately 7% of 16 year olds do not attend school
The enrolment rate of 16 year olds in Iceland during the autumn term of 2008 was 93% when all modes of teaching are considered (i.e. day courses, evening school and distance learning). The enrolment rate of 16 year olds has not changed since the autumn of 2006. The highest enrolment rate for the 16 year old cohort was in autumn 2005 when it reached 94%.
There are noticeable differences in the enrolment rate between different regions of the country. Proportionally the highest enrolment rate is in the East or 96% but lowest in the Southwest where it is 88%.
It is interesting to compare the enrolment rate for the 16, 17 and 18 year old cohorts. These figures indicate how many students drop out of upper secondary school during the first two years of study. The enrolment rate for 17 year olds in the autumn of 2008 is 85% and 75% for 18 year olds. Thus the enrolment rate has dropped by 8 percentage points between the 16 and 17 year old cohorts, and by 18 percentage points between the 16 and 18 year old cohorts.
Most tertiary level students study social sciences, business and law
The total number of students at the tertiary and doctorate levels in the autumn of 2008 was 16,944. Thereof 39% (6,602) study in the fields of social sciences, business and law. The second largest field is education, with 16% of the students. For comparison, 9% of students at the tertiary level study engineering, manufacturing and construction and 7% are students in science, mathematics and computing.
Almost two of every three students at the tertiary level are women
Women are 64% of all students at the tertiary and doctorate levels of education in the autumn of 2008. They are more numerous than males in all fields of study with the exception of engineering and the sciences. Women are 34% of students in engineering, manufacturing and construction and 37% in science, mathematics and computing. The field with the largest proportion of women is health and welfare where 85% of students are female. In education women are 84% of all students.
There are 282 students at the doctorate level and their number has increased from 20 since 1998. Women have been the majority of doctoral students since the autumn of 2001 and they were 59% of doctoral students in the autumn of 2008. The number of foreign doctoral students is increasing and in 2008 23% of doctoral students were citizens of other countries.
More data according to the International Classification of Education 1997
Statistics Iceland publishes for the second time data on the number of students according to ISCED97. Data from the autumn of 1997 are now available according to ISCED97 so five years have been added to the time series. In addition, data are published for the first time separately for public and private schools at the upper secondary and tertiary levels of education.
About the data
Information is gathered directly from the schools and refers to the number of students in the middle of October. Each student is only counted once even if he is studying in two schools. The enrolment rate is computed by classifying students by age and domicile on December 1, each year and computing their proportion of the relevant age group.
Statistics:
Upper secondary schools
Universities
Overview