Taiwan ranks second worldwide in those with higher education

台灣高等教育人口數量位居世界第二

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of the Interior on Saturday said that Taiwan’s higher education attainment rate last year was the second-highest in the world.

By the end of 2025, 10.6 million Taiwanese had a college degree or higher, per CNA. Taiwan’s higher education rate of 61% was above the international average of 43% and higher than that of Japan, South Korea, and the US, second only to Canada’s 65%, based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2024 data.

The literacy rate in Taiwan stood at 99.4% among the 20.61 million people aged 15 and over. By gender, the literacy rate for men was 99.9% and 98.9% for women.

Women’s literacy rate has increased from 97.7% a decade earlier, compared to a 0.2-point increase for men.

Those with college degrees or above accounted for 51.4% of the population, continuing an upward trend. This group included 6.45 million university graduates, 2.23 million junior college graduates, and 1.9 million with graduate degrees.

Taiwanese with a high school or vocational education numbered 5.95 million (28.9%), while 2.2 million (10.7%) had junior high education, and 1.69 million (8.2%) had primary school education.

By gender, 53.3% of men had attained a college education or above, compared to 49.7% of women. Among those aged 50 and above, men had a higher proportion of higher education attainment, while the reverse was true for those under 50.

Men also had a higher proportion of graduate degrees. The number of women with graduate degrees reached 786,000, marking a 48.1% increase over the past decade, exceeding the 34.8% growth rate for men.

Compared with major countries, Taiwan’s 2024 higher education rate of 60% surpassed Japan (57%), South Korea (56%), the UK (54%), Australia (53%), Sweden (52%), the US (51%), Israel (51%), the Netherlands (45%), France (43%), Germany (34%), and the Czech Republic (27%), the ministry said.