Forgot your password?
How many people have a different level of education from their parents?
The proportion of people who have a different level of educational attainment, whether higher or lower, is a measure of educational mobility. Part of such mobility may be due to changes in the educational composition of the population, in the sense that this tends to change over time as the level of education generally increases - i.e. the proportion obtaining upper-secondary or tertiary-level qualifications has expanded over the years in all countries. The structural mobility rate can be defined as the proportion of those whose education level is different from their father's or mother's as a result of this expansion. The remaining part of mobility can be termed 'circular', in that it is not related to structural change.
Figure 1: Proportion of 25-64-year-olds with a different level of education from their father, decomposed into structural and circular mobility, % of total
Three educational attainment levels are distinguished: lower than upper-secondary education, upper-secondary education and tertiary education (for more details see the section on Measurement and methods). Of the 14 EU countries covered, the total educational mobility rate is highest in Finland, where 63% of people have a different level of education from their father, followed by Sweden and Cyprus (around 60% in each) and Estonia and Latvia (over 55%). Mobility is lowest in Portugal, where only 25% of adults have a different level of education from their father (though to some extent this might reflect the great majority of people who have the same level of education - less than upper-secondary). In other countries, mobility rates vary between 45% and 55%.
In the majority of the countries, the structural mobility rate is higher than circular mobility, suggesting that total mobility is mainly due to changes in the educational composition of the population, with more people attaining upper-secondary and tertiary education.
Cyprus, Finland and Hungary have the highest structural mobility rates, at 40% or over, while circular mobility is highest in Estonia, at around 32%. Austria, Sweden and Slovenia also have relatively high circular mobility rates (of around 25%), while the lowest rate is in Portugal, at only 4% (but see above). Rates are also low in Greece, Cyprus and Hungary (around 10-15%).
The effect of parental education on whether someone has a tertiary-education degree
The effect of parental education is most meaningfully assessed in terms of the odds ratio - i.e. the odds of someone having tertiary education whose parents also had tertiary education, relative to those of someone whose parents had a lower level of education.
This indicates that the influence of the education level of fathers is greatest in Portugal, where those with tertiary-educated fathers have almost 20 times better chance of having tertiary education themselves than those whose fathers have a lower education level (Figure 2). Hungary has the next highest odds ratio, at 15, while Finland and Estonia, by contrast, have odds ratios of only around 3. Among the other countries, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece have relatively high odds ratios (and therefore a relatively low level of equality in educational opportunity), while Austria and Sweden have relatively low odds ratios (and accordingly a much higher level of equality of opportunity).
Parental education can also be measured by the education of mothers rather than fathers. In the majority of countries, taking one rather than the other does not make much difference to the results. In Cyprus, Greece and Hungary, however, the odds ratios are reduced significantly if the mother's education level is used instead of the father's. In Austria, Poland and Portugal, the reverse is the case.
Figure 2: Effect of parental education on the odds of having tertiary education (as measured by the odds ratio)
In Hungary, Greece and Poland, the effect of parental education (as measured by the father's education) is larger for men than for women (Figure 3). In Portugal, Cyprus, Latvia and Sweden, the opposite is the case, the effect of the education of the father being stronger (the odds ratio being 20-30% higher) for women than for men. In the other countries, there is little difference in the effect between men and women.
Figure 3: Effect of father's education on the odds of having tertiary education, by gender (as measured by the odds ratio)
Does the effect of parental education on education levels vary by age group?
The effect of parental education on whether people in different age groups have tertiary education gives an indication of changes in the influence of parental education over time. The effect of parental education for those in the different age groups, therefore, reflects the extent of inequality of opportunity in the period when the people concerned were being educated. Three age groups are examined here: those aged 51-65 in 2007 (who were 20 years old between 1962 and 1976); those aged 36-50 (who were 20 years old between 1977 and 1991); and those aged 25-35 in 2007 (who were 20 years old between 1992 and 2002). Differences between countries in the odds ratios for younger people are much smaller than is the case for older age groups. In the 25-35 age group, therefore, if someone's father had tertiary education, the odds of that person having a similar level of education are around ten times greater in Portugal and around eight times greater in Hungary than is the case for someone whose father had a lower level of education (Figure 4). In both cases, the odds are considerably less than for those aged 36-50 or 51-65. The same is the case for most other countries, which suggests a reduction in the effect of parental education on that of children over the period covered - particularly between the 1980s and the 1990s in Portugal, Hungary and Latvia, but in most other countries over the whole period from the 1960s.
Figure 4: Effect of father's education on the odds of having tertiary education, by age (as measured by the odds ratio)
