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Countries commit to reducing the number of out-of-school children by 165 million
Through their national SDG 4 benchmarks, countries have collectively committed to inject new energy into the global agenda and make it relevant to their needs. We now need continued investment in national data systems, institutional capacity, and political leadership to turn these commitments into tangible results.
The new data is presented in the 2025 SDG 4 Scorecard dashboard, an annual publication by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report. It outlines countries’ national education targets and the progress they have made toward achieving them.
To date, countries have committed to reducing out-of-school rates to 2% at the primary level, 5% at lower secondary, and 16% at upper secondary by 2030. This would reduce the number of out-of-school children to 107 million — a decrease of 165 million — by 2030.
UNESCO advocates for the right to education for all, calling on countries to allocate at least 4 to 6% of GDP and at least 15 to 20% of total public expenditure to education. It also ensures global coordination to keep education at the top of government priorities and intervenes in situations of conflict, emergencies, and protracted crises to ensure access to education.
New estimate of the number of out-of-school youth
According to the new 2025 dashboard, the number of out-of-school children worldwide stands at , an increase of 21 million compared to the previous estimate published in October 2024.
This increase is mainly due to new demographic estimates provided by the United Nations Population Division, which indicate a rise of nearly 50 million in the total school-age population, as well as an increase in the number of out-of-school children in Afghanistan.
Globally, 11% of children of primary school age (78 million), 15% of children of lower secondary school age (64 million), and 31% of youth of upper secondary school age (130 million) are out of school.
The new UNESCO report also provides, for the first time, an estimate of the out-of-school population in 10 conflict-affected countries where data is difficult to access (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan), which account for at least 13 million additional out-of-school children.
