2013 09 April Update

The new version (1.3) is now available!

This version (1.3) of the Barro-Lee data set has made several changes to the earlier version (1.2). The changes affected various countries in the sample, but they are not significant in magnitude for most cases.

The changes are:

• We have evaluated more carefully the accuracy of the forward-flow and backward- flow estimates of educational attainment for the total and female population in the age group, 15-19 and 20-24. We have made corrections to those estimates that showed unrealistic fluctuations over time, which are mainly due to measurement errors in school enrollment rates. The new estimates display a smoother trend in each category of educational attainment and average years of schooling among the younger cohorts than the previous estimates.

• We have checked the accuracy of the estimates of educational attainment among male population by age group, which are constructed from the estimates among total and female population by age group. We have made corrections to the estimates that showed unrealistic fluctuations over time.

• We have changed the backward extrapolation method. We continue to apply the backward extrapolation procedure to fill in missing data for each age group by using the attainment of the older age group from the succeeding period. But it turns out that the backward-flow extrapolated estimates for the age group below 65 years old are not often accurate if we use the attainment of the age group over 65 years old from the succeeding period as benchmark data when they are not from census. So, we decide not to use the backward extrapolation method for this case. Instead, we have estimated the attainment of the age group, 60-64 by using the group-average age-specific profile for the same age group constructed using the available data of the countries in advanced countries or developing countries, and then used the estimates as benchmark data for the backward extrapolation for the age group in the preceding period.

• We have used recently available UNESCO data of secondary and tertiary enrollment rates for 2010 to estimate missing attainment data. This has affected secondary and tertiary educational attainment among the population in the age group, 15-19 and 20-24.

2011 04 Sept. Update

The new version (1.2) is now available!

This version (1.2) improves on the earlier version (1.1) by incorporating recently available census observations and correcting inaccurate estimates of completion ratios.

• The new census data are now available through UNESCO and national statistical offices.

• The census data for the following countries are available through UNESCO: Canada, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and United Arab Emirates; while the census data for the following countries are available through their respective statistical offices: Macro SAR, Cote d'Ivoire, Guatemala, Italy, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Sri Lanka and United States.

• Some countries have extremely low or high county specific primary/secondary completion ratios. As these imply unusual trends in the completion ratios, we replaced them by the regional specific primary/secondary completion ratios. These countries include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo (only F), Hungary, India, Malta, Myanmar, New Zealand, Portugal (only MF), Sierre Leone, United Kingdom and Zambia. 

• A more detailed list of these revisions is available here.

• The version (1.2) released on September 2011 is available here.

2010 12 Nov. Update

The note on data sources and country-specific information is now available.

2010 07 July Update

Revised version of the Barro-Lee Educational Attainment Dataset is now available!

• The differences in the estimates between this and the previous version are due to some errors in the previous version. These include some data entry, data expansion, completion estimation, and other minor estimation errors. There are only minor differences in the average years of schooling data series between this and the previous version. A more detailed list of these will be uploaded in this site soon.

• The version (1.1) released on July 2010 is available here.