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Pupil-trained teacher ratio in primary education (headcount basis) by country

Average number of pupils per trained teacher at a given level of education, based on headcounts of both pupils and teachers. Divide the total number of pupils enrolled at the specified level of education by the number of trained teachers at the same level. A trained teacher is defined as a teacher who has fulfilled...

Countries reporting
108
Highest
240.39 headcount basis
Madagascar
Lowest
6.72 headcount basis
Bermuda
Median
24.18 headcount basis
Years covered
24
1997–2020
Data points
1,748

What the numbers show

Pupil-trained teacher ratio in primary education (headcount basis) is currently reported for 108 countries. The highest value is 240.39 headcount basis in Madagascar; the lowest is 6.72 headcount basis in Bermuda.

The median across all reporting countries is 24.18 headcount basis, and the mean is 32.45 headcount basis.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 36.

Over the past decade 28 countries rose and 76 fell. The largest increase was in Turks and Caicos Islands (up 128.4%), and the largest decrease in Nepal (down 64.3%).

Pupil-trained teacher ratio in primary education: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Madagascar 240.39 headcount basis 2019 up 17.1% rising
2 Sao Tome and Principe 113.68 headcount basis 2017 up 108.9% rising
3 Belize 108.36 headcount basis 2019 up 103.6% flat
4 Chad 96.07 headcount basis 2013 — rising
5 Malawi 76.14 headcount basis 2013 down 8.0% falling
6 Guinea 62.56 headcount basis 2016 down 4.7% falling
7 Equatorial Guinea 62.39 headcount basis 2015 up 13.7% rising
8 Rwanda 60.24 headcount basis 2019 down 17.2% falling
9 Bangladesh 59.6 headcount basis 2017 down 25.4% falling
10 Pakistan 59.58 headcount basis 2019 up 27.9% rising
11 Mozambique 58.32 headcount basis 2019 down 32.3% falling
12 Sierra Leone 58.27 headcount basis 2019 down 10.7% falling
13 Benin 57.41 headcount basis 2019 down 48.3% falling
14 Nigeria 56.77 headcount basis 2010 up 24.0% flat
15 Congo 55.33 headcount basis 2012 down 51.5% falling
16 Cameroon 54.92 headcount basis 2017 down 24.1% falling
17 Togo 50.84 headcount basis 2019 down 3.9% falling
18 Eritrea 45.87 headcount basis 2018 down 13.6% falling
19 Kenya 44.76 headcount basis 2009 up 16.2% rising
20 Senegal 44.64 headcount basis 2019 down 45.2% falling
21 Burkina Faso 44.47 headcount basis 2019 down 21.7% falling
22 Ghana 43.87 headcount basis 2019 down 37.0% rising
23 Burundi 42.92 headcount basis 2019 down 23.8% falling
24 Gambia 42.23 headcount basis 2019 up 0.7% falling
25 Tanzania 42.11 headcount basis 2016 down 19.7% falling
26 Mauritania 42.06 headcount basis 2019 up 7.7% flat
27 Cambodia 41.94 headcount basis 2019 down 15.0% falling
28 Cote d'Ivoire 41.6 headcount basis 2019 down 1.3% flat
29 Turks and Caicos Islands 41.35 headcount basis 2018 up 128.4% rising
30 Niger 40.55 headcount basis 2019 up 2.3% rising
31 Nicaragua 40.36 headcount basis 2010 down 17.5% falling
32 Lesotho 39.01 headcount basis 2016 down 36.2% falling
33 Kiribati 35.39 headcount basis 2016 up 12.4% rising
34 Democratic Republic of Congo 33.58 headcount basis 2018 down 19.7% falling
35 Solomon Islands 33.41 headcount basis 2018 down 2.8% flat
36 Guyana 33.26 headcount basis 2012 down 32.1% falling
37 Mongolia 32.58 headcount basis 2018 up 4.6% falling
38 Bhutan 32.02 headcount basis 2020 down 2.0% falling
39 Liberia 31.81 headcount basis 2017 down 55.0% falling
40 Ecuador 31.5 headcount basis 2007 up 17.8% rising
41 Namibia 30.89 headcount basis 2010 down 16.5% falling
42 Eswatini 30.32 headcount basis 2017 down 12.1% flat
43 Djibouti 29.37 headcount basis 2018 down 30.7% falling
44 Iran 28.52 headcount basis 2017 up 29.2% rising
45 El Salvador 28.18 headcount basis 2018 down 19.5% falling
46 Philippines 27.07 headcount basis 2018 — falling
47 Sri Lanka 26.5 headcount basis 2018 down 9.0% falling
48 Kyrgyzstan 26.11 headcount basis 2017 down 32.8% falling
49 Grenada 25.97 headcount basis 2018 down 15.4% falling
50 Mexico 25.81 headcount basis 2018 down 12.5% falling
51 Morocco 25.8 headcount basis 2019 down 3.1% flat
52 Myanmar 25.55 headcount basis 2018 down 12.2% falling
53 Colombia 24.92 headcount basis 2017 down 15.6% falling
54 United Arab Emirates 24.52 headcount basis 2016 down 3.5% falling
55 Algeria 23.84 headcount basis 2015 down 7.7% falling
56 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 23.57 headcount basis 2018 up 15.3% falling
57 Antigua and Barbuda 23.49 headcount basis 2018 down 27.5% falling
58 Palestine 22.99 headcount basis 2019 down 17.8% falling
59 Botswana 22.93 headcount basis 2013 down 21.0% falling
60 Tajikistan 22.3 headcount basis 2017 down 9.8% falling
61 Laos 22.16 headcount basis 2019 down 30.1% falling
62 Panama 22.13 headcount basis 2017 down 18.1% falling
63 Vietnam 21.87 headcount basis 2019 up 11.6% falling
64 Bahamas 21.66 headcount basis 2018 up 25.0% rising
65 Cape Verde 21.38 headcount basis 2018 down 25.6% falling
66 Uzbekistan 21.09 headcount basis 2019 up 23.2% rising
67 Jamaica 20.51 headcount basis 2019 down 34.0% falling
68 Nepal 20.29 headcount basis 2019 down 64.3% volatile
69 Trinidad and Tobago 19.98 headcount basis 2009 down 33.1% falling
70 Dominican Republic 19.95 headcount basis 2018 down 9.3% falling
71 Bolivia 19.69 headcount basis 2018 down 0.8% flat
72 Belarus 19.32 headcount basis 2018 up 25.8% rising
73 Saint Kitts and Nevis 19.27 headcount basis 2016 down 36.3% falling
74 Barbados 18.95 headcount basis 2019 down 22.2% falling
75 Dominica 18.62 headcount basis 2019 down 33.3% falling
76 Moldova 17.97 headcount basis 2019 up 0.3% flat
77 Ukraine 17.87 headcount basis 2019 up 14.5% falling
78 Croatia 17.73 headcount basis 2003 — falling
79 Seychelles 17.51 headcount basis 2019 up 25.9% flat
80 Kazakhstan 17.21 headcount basis 2019 up 2.1% rising
81 Tunisia 16.87 headcount basis 2018 down 1.6% flat
82 Saint Lucia 16.48 headcount basis 2019 down 27.7% falling
83 Jordan 16.38 headcount basis 2019 down 3.2% flat
84 Azerbaijan 15.79 headcount basis 2019 up 42.3% falling
85 Cayman Islands 15.75 headcount basis 2018 up 24.8% flat
86 Mauritius 15.2 headcount basis 2019 down 29.7% falling
87 Aruba 14.86 headcount basis 2012 down 22.1% falling
88 Saudi Arabia 14.67 headcount basis 2019 up 19.6% rising
89 Singapore 14.59 headcount basis 2018 down 28.5% falling
90 Gibraltar 14.17 headcount basis 2017 down 14.8% falling
91 Hong Kong 13.75 headcount basis 2019 down 17.5% falling
92 Macao 13.69 headcount basis 2019 down 32.1% falling
93 Suriname 13.54 headcount basis 2018 down 15.3% falling
94 Thailand 12.96 headcount basis 2019 down 15.8% falling
95 Costa Rica 12.31 headcount basis 2019 down 41.4% falling
96 Bahrain 12.24 headcount basis 2019 down 18.8% falling
97 Qatar 12.15 headcount basis 2019 down 47.1% falling
98 Malaysia 11.78 headcount basis 2017 down 26.4% falling
99 Brunei 11.28 headcount basis 2019 down 20.6% falling
100 Kuwait 11.23 headcount basis 2015 down 6.9% falling
101 Maldives 10.93 headcount basis 2019 down 36.1% falling
102 British Virgin Islands 10.76 headcount basis 2018 down 45.6% falling
103 Uruguay 10.69 headcount basis 2018 down 10.6% falling
104 Andorra 10.52 headcount basis 2019 up 1.8% flat
105 Oman 10.34 headcount basis 2019 — falling
106 Georgia 9.43 headcount basis 2009 down 47.0% falling
107 Cuba 9.32 headcount basis 2019 down 1.2% falling
108 Bermuda 6.72 headcount basis 2014 down 21.7% falling

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

About this data

Indicator
Pupil-trained teacher ratio in primary education (headcount basis)
Unit
headcount basis
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
138 places, 1,748 data points, 1997–2020
Last refreshed

Average number of pupils per trained teacher at a given level of education, based on headcounts of both pupils and teachers. Divide the total number of pupils enrolled at the specified level of education by the number of trained teachers at the same level. A trained teacher is defined as a teacher who has fulfilled at least the minimum organized teacher-training requirements (pre-service or in-service) to teach a specific level of education according to the relevant national policy or law. These requirements usually include pedagogical knowledge (broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organization that transcend the subject matter being taught - typically approaches, methods and techniques of teaching), and professional knowledge (knowledge of statutory instruments and other legal frameworks that govern the teaching profession). Some programmes may also cover content knowledge (knowledge of the curriculum and the subject matter to be taught and the use of relevant materials). In computing and interpreting this indicator, one should take into account the existence of part-time teaching, school-shifts, multi-grade classes and other practices that may affect the precision and meaningfulness of pupil-teacher ratios. When feasible, the number of part-time teachers is converted to ‘full-time equivalent’ teachers; a double-shift teacher is counted twice, etc. Teachers are defined as persons whose professional activity involves the transmitting of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are stipulated in a formal curriculum programme to students enrolled in a formal educational institution.