International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and Implications

This study provides an update on measures of educational attainment for a broad cross section of countries. In our previous work (Barro and Lee, 1993), we constructed estimates of educational attainment by sex for persons aged 25 and over. The values applied to 129 countries over a five-year intervals from 1960 to 1985. The present study adds census information for 1985 and 1990 and updates the estimates of educational attainment to 1990. We also have been able to add a few countries, notably China, which were previously omitted because of missing data. Barro-Lee Data Set for a Panel of 138 Countries (link to NBER) International Measures of School ing Years and Schooling Quality(link to the World Bank)