Portugal is well on the way to achieving its goal of seeing that its citizens attain higher education, including undergraduate and postgraduate study as well as training for specific vocations.
By 2015, 40% of its female students and 23% of males had successfully completed tertiary education. This was against a goal of 40% for both sexes to be achieved by 2020.
The results stand against an EU average of 43.4% for women and 36.7% for men.
In 2002, just over 16% of women and only 9% of men finished higher education in Portugal.
At the same time, there has been a rapid drop in the percentages of the population with secondary education at most who are not in further studies or training.
This was the case for 11% of females and 16% of males in 2015.
In 2015, at least half the population of those aged 30 to 34 had completed higher education in Lithuania (58%), Cyprus (55%), Ireland and Luxembourg (both 52%) as well as Sweden (50%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions were found in Italy (25%), Romania (25%), Malta (28%) and Slovakia (28%).
Throughout the EU countries, more women than men achieved higher education with the sole exception of Germany.
The highest share of school leavers was reported in Spain (20%).
