Education at a Glance 2026: Peru
Table of contents
This country note for Education at a Glance 2026 provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in Peru. In line with this year’s thematic focus, it emphasises teacher shortages while also covering other parts of the education system. The data in this note are provided for the latest available year. Readers are referred to the corresponding tables in Education at a Glance 2026 for notes and reference years.
Teachers tend to be older than other workers. On average across countries with available data, 25% of secondary teachers are aged 55 and over, compared to 19% of employed individuals holding at least a master’s degree and 21% of the overall employed population. Peru does not follow this pattern: 22% of secondary teachers are aged 55 and over, compared to 27% of employed individuals holding at least a master’s degree and 20% of the overall employed population (Figure 10).
Youth and young adults who are neither employed nor in education or training (NEET) are a key policy concern, as prolonged periods of inactivity at a young age can have lasting negative effects on socio-economic outcomes later in life. In Peru, 20% of all 18-24 year-olds were NEET in 2025, down from 22% in 2015. For comparison, the average share of NEETs across OECD countries with available data for both years was 13% in 2025 and 16% in 2015 (Table A2.2).
The labour-market significance of advanced qualifications is also reflected in earnings. In almost every OECD country, workers without a tertiary qualification have earnings below the national average. In Peru, full-time, full-year workers with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment earn 14% less than the national average and those with below upper secondary attainment earn 35% less (Figure A4.1).
Participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is common among children from the age of 3 in all OECD countries. In Peru, 90% of children between the age of 3 and the starting age of primary education (age 6 in Peru) were enrolled in ECEC in 2024, similar to the OECD average of 90% (Figure B1.1). However, enrolment rates for younger children vary widely across OECD countries. Among 2 year old children in Peru, 13% are enrolled in early childhood educational development programmes that meet the criteria of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) by combining education and care. This places Peru at the lower end of OECD countries with available data (Table B1.1).
The number of primary and secondary schools – and thus their geographical proximity to students – varies across countries. Many countries have more primary than lower secondary schools, reflecting the desire to provide education close to primary students’ homes while offering secondary students the greater choice of specialist subjects that can only be provided by larger schools. In Peru, there are 2.26 primary schools for each lower secondary school, similar to the OECD average of 1.97 (Figure B2.4).
In most countries, there is no strong alignment between trends in the number of students and trends in the number of schools at lower secondary level. In Peru, the number of lower secondary students increased by 1.26% annually between 2015 and 2024, while the number of lower secondary schools increased by 1.71% annually over the same period. On average across the OECD, the number of students increased by 0.96%, while the number of schools decreased by 0.10% (Figure B2.1).
At tertiary level (ISCED 5-8), most OECD countries host a larger number of international students than they send abroad. On average across the OECD, outbound internationally mobile students account for 6% of all national students (whether enrolled domestically or abroad), while inbound students account for 12% of all students enrolled domestically in 2024. In Peru the share of outbound international students is 2%, while inbound international students average 1%. The top three destination countries for outbound students in Peru are Argentina (37%), Spain (14%) and the United States (12%), while the top three origin countries of inbound students are Venezuela (22%), Argentina (19%) and Ecuador (15%) (Table B4.3. and Table B4.4).
Government expenditure on primary to tertiary education as share of GDP (based on final funds, on educational institutions, including R&D) varies by a factor of approximately two across OECD countries (ranging from 2.4% to 5.2%), while government expenditure per student varies by a factor of ten (from USD 3 398 to USD 32 832 adjusted for purchasing power parity) as differences in income levels mean nominal expenditure tends to vary more than relative expenditure. On average across the OECD, expenditure per student from primary to tertiary education was USD 13 601 in 2023, while in Peru it was USD 1 858 in 2022 (Table C1.4. and Table C1.1).
Government expenditure on education tends to rise with the level of education. In primary education, expenditure per student was USD 1 728 in 2022 in Peru and USD 12 893 on average across the OECD in 2023. In lower secondary education, it was USD 2 306 in Peru and USD 14 291 on average across the OECD. Thus, Peru is among the majority of countries where expenditure is higher at lower secondary level than at primary level (Table C3.1).
Women form the majority of teachers at all levels of education except tertiary. Teachers in pre-primary education are almost entirely women with 96% of teachers being female on average across the OECD. The share of women among pre-primary teachers in Peru is even higher at 98%. At 47%, the share of female teachers in lower secondary education is lower, and it is below the OECD average of 68% (Table D5.1).
Across the OECD, women are more strongly represented among teachers than among school management staff. In primary education, women in Peru accounted for 71% of teachers and 47% of school management staff in 2024, a gap of 24 percentage points. This gap was larger than the OECD average of 15 percentage points (Figure D5.3).
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For more information on Education at a Glance 2026 and to access the full set of indicators, see: https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en.
For more information on the methodology used during the data collection for each indicator, the references to the sources and the specific notes for each country, see Education at a Glance 2026: Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes, https://doi.org/10.1787/dcf64a14-en.
For general information on the methodology, please refer to the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en.
Updated data can be found online at http://data-explorer.oecd.org/ and by following the StatLinks in the publication.
Explore, compare and visualise more data and analysis using the Education GPS: https://gpseducation.oecd.org/.
Questions can be directed to the Education at a Glance team at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills: EDU.EAG@oecd.org.
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