Education at a Glance 2026: United States
Table of contents
This country note for Education at a Glance 2026 provides an overview of the key characteristics of the education system in the United States. 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.
Recruiting second-career teachers is a common strategy for addressing teacher shortages and helps to diversify the profile of the teaching workforce. According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024, on average across the OECD, 8.4% of lower secondary teachers are second-career teachers; in the United States, they make up 16.3% of all teachers (Table 5).
The attractiveness of the teaching profession depends on a variety of factors, including working conditions and salaries. According to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), full-time teachers in primary, secondary and vocational education report working 40.8 hours per week on average across the OECD in 2023, compared with 41.5 hours for other full-time workers holding a bachelor’s or master’s qualification. In the United States, these teachers report working 44.3 hours per week on average, while other full-time workers with a bachelor’s or master’s qualification report working 43.2 hours per week. This difference is not statistically significant (Table 6).
According to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024, a large majority of lower secondary teachers (68.4%) are satisfied with their terms of employment (barring salaries) on average across the OECD. In contrast, the share of lower secondary teachers who are satisfied with their salaries is much lower at 38.7% on average. In the United States, 75.4% of lower secondary teachers are satisfied with their terms of employment and 38.9% are satisfied with their salaries (Table 5).
The number of teachers a system needs is not determined by student numbers alone. On average across the OECD, measured in full-time equivalents, the number of teachers in public and private primary schools rose by 13% between 2015 and 2024, even though the number of primary students rose by only 2% over the same period, a divergence driven by policy choices around class sizes, teachers’ working hours and instruction time. In the United States, the number of primary teachers increased by 7% over this period, while the number of students decreased by 4% (Table 7).
Looking ahead, the number of children aged 5-14 in the United States is projected to decrease by 6% between 2024 and 2033, pointing to lower demand for teachers if other policies remain unchanged (Table 7). However, as argued above, demographic trends are only one factor shaping teacher workforce needs, and their effects can vary depending on how population change is distributed across regions. Teacher workforce needs also depend on policy decisions related to class sizes, teacher attrition and funding.
Educational attainment remains at an all-time high in 2025 as more people obtain advanced qualifications. Across the OECD, 43% of working-age adults (25-64 year-olds) have a tertiary qualification, while the share of adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment is slightly lower at 39%. In the United States, the share of adults with tertiary attainment is above the OECD average at 52%, while the share of adults with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment is similar to the OECD average at 40% (Table A1.1).
The share of young adults without upper secondary attainment continues to decline across the OECD, standing at 12% in 2025. This trend is also apparent in the United States, where the share of 25-34 year-olds without upper secondary attainment decreased from 10% to 5% between 2015 and 2025 (Table A1.2).
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 the United States, 14% of all 18-24 year-olds were NEET in 2025, down from 16% 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).
Employment outcomes for recent tertiary graduates vary across countries and are shaped by economic conditions, labour demand, and public policy. In the United States, the unemployment rate among tertiary-educated young adults remained constant at 3% in 2015 and 2025. The corresponding rates across OECD countries with available data for both years were 7% on average in 2015 and 5% in 2025 (Table A3.3. and Figure 1).
In per cent of 25-34 year-olds in the labour force
Note: The OECD average on the right is based on a fixed sample of 34 countries.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure A3.1 and Unemployment rates of adults, by educational attainment, age group and gender (indicator), https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/570 (accessed on 27 August 2026).
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 the United States, full-time, full-year workers with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary attainment earn 28% less than the national average and those with below upper secondary attainment earn 45% less (Figure A4.1).
As the demand for skills in the labour market changes, participation in lifelong learning is essential for all adults. According to the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), among employed adults, younger adults (aged 25-44) are more likely to participate in non-formal education or training than older adults (aged 45-64), but differences between the age groups are often small. In the United States, 74% of 25-44 year-olds had participated in non-formal education or training over the last 12 months, compared to 68% of 45-64 year-olds. Across the OECD, average participation rates are 52% among 25-44 year-olds and 45% among 45-64 year-olds (Figure A5.2).
Participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is common among children from the age of 3 in all OECD countries. In the United States, 66% of children between the age of 3 and the starting age of primary education (age 6 in the United States) were enrolled in ECEC in 2024, lower than the OECD average of 90% (Figure B1.1).
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 the United States the share of outbound international students is 1%, while inbound international students average 5%. The top three destination countries for outbound students in the United States are Mexico (26%), the United Kingdom (18%) and Canada (8%), while the top three origin countries of inbound students are India (27%), China (25%) and Korea (4%) (Table B4.3. and Table B4.4).
In many countries, inbound mobility has increased faster than outbound mobility among tertiary students. On average across the OECD, the share of inbound mobile students increased by 4 percentage points between 2015 and 2024, and the share of outbound mobile students increased by 1 percentage point. In the United States, the share of inbound students increased by 1 percentage point, while the share of outbound students remained the same (Table B4.3).
Most investment in education comes from public sources. On average across the OECD, government expenditure on primary to tertiary education (based on initial funds, on educational institutions) corresponded to 4% of GDP in 2023, while private expenditure corresponded to 0.6%. In the United States, government expenditure equalled 5% of GDP in 2022, while private expenditure equalled 0.6% (Table C1.8).
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 the United States it was USD 15 699 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 15 468 in 2022 in the United States and USD 12 893 on average across the OECD in 2023. In lower secondary education, it was USD 16 030 in the United States and USD 14 291 on average across the OECD. Thus, the United States is among the majority of OECD countries where expenditure is higher at lower secondary level than at primary level (Table C3.1).
Expenditure can be divided into capital and current expenditure: the former finances investment in assets such as infrastructure, while the latter covers regular operating costs. Current expenditure can be further broken down into staff compensation and other current expenditure, such as purchases of goods and services and routine maintenance. In the United States, 79% of current expenditure in primary educational institutions is dedicated to staff compensation compared to 79% on average across the OECD, while the remainder is dedicated to other current expenditure (Figure C3.3).
Most countries have increased their investment in pre-primary education in recent years. This is also reflected in the ratio of children to teachers. Across the OECD, the number of children enrolled at this level decreased slightly by 2% between 2015 and 2024 while the number of teachers increased by 14%, resulting in a 14% reduction in the child-to-teacher ratio. In the United States, the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education decreased by 5%, while the number of pre-primary teachers also decreased by 11%, resulting in a 7% increase of the child-to-teacher ratio (Data for chart D2.1).
In most countries, salaries of teachers in public institutions are lower than the salaries of other tertiary-educated workers, especially for teachers at lower levels of education. This is also the case in the United States, where pre-primary teachers earned on average 40% less than other tertiary-educated workers, while lower secondary teachers earned on average 37% less than other tertiary-educated workers (Table D3.2).
Teachers spend only a fraction of their working time teaching; the remainder is devoted to other tasks, including lesson preparation and marking. On average across the OECD, primary teachers taught 770 hours per year compared to 710 hours per year in lower secondary education. In the United States, annual actual teaching hours were 908 in primary education and 893 in lower secondary education in 2021. Thus, the United States was among the large majority of countries where teachers in lower secondary education had to teach fewer hours than those in primary education (Figure 2).
Net statutory teaching time in hours per year, in public institutions
Note: Please refer to the source table for information on whether the data refer to typical, minimum or maximum hours.
1. Actual teaching time (in Latvia except for pre-primary level).
2. Reference year differs from 2023. Refer to the source table for details.
3. Average planned teaching time in each school at the beginning of the school year.
For data, see OECD (2026) Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en, Figure D4.1 and Table D4.1.
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 the United States is slightly lower at 93%. At 67%, the share of female teachers in lower secondary education is lower, and it is below the OECD average of 68% (Table D5.1).
Contact
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.
This work is issued under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD, and does not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD Member countries.
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The full book is available in English: OECD (2026), Education at a Glance 2026: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b4968bbc-en.
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