Population's level of education, after the survey on education 2011/2012

This report describes the education of immigrants subsequent to the update to the register of the population’s level of education. Prior to the update, a survey on education completed abroad before immigration to Norway was conducted among immigrants. As a result of the survey, the unknown proportion was reduced from 43 per cent to about 20 per cent.

Comparisons are made between immigrants, Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and the rest of the population in the age group 25-49 years. The proportion with highest level of completed education at compulsory schooling and long higher education is higher for immigrants than the two other groups. Twenty-seven per cent of immigrants, 26 per cent of Norwegian-born to immigrant parents and 18 per cent of the rest of the population have compulsory schooling as their highest completed education. Among immigrants, 16 per cent have a long university or college university education lasting more than four years. In the rest of the population, 10 per cent have education at this level, while the corresponding figure for Norwegian-born to immigrant parents is 14 per cent. Two per cent of immigrants have no completed education, and most of these are women.

Distributed by continent, immigrants from Europe are the largest immigration group. More than half of the immigrants aged 25-49 years are from a European country. EU countries in Eastern Europe have the highest number of immigrants from Europe. Polish immigrants have an absolute majority, with almost 45 300 persons, and the Swedes are next with about 19 500. Otherwise, most other immigrants from European countries are from Lithuania and Germany. The number of immigrants from the rest of the world is the next highest, and these are from Iraq, Somalia and Pakistan.

Two of three Polish men who have immigrated to Norway have upper secondary education as their highest completed education. For women, the proportion is 39 per cent. Twenty-six per cent of Polish women have a university or university college education longer than four years. Only 10 per cent of Polish men have completed education of this length.

The level of education among immigrants from Africa is low. Eight per cent of African women have no completed education, and almost one out of two have primary or lower secondary education as their highest completed education. Only 5 per cent have a long higher education. The percentage for African men is slightly higher, but the education level for men is also low.

Immigrants in Tromsø have generally a high level of education. Of the counties with over 1 000 immigrants, Tromsø has the highest proportion with highly educated immigrants. About one out of three domiciled immigrants have completed a long higher education. Tromsø also has the lowest proportion with primary, lower or upper secondary education as the highest completed education.

Teacher education and pedagogical education, which includes general teacher and nursery teacher education, is the field of education with the biggest difference of completed education for the immigrant categories. Eleven per cent of immigrants with a higher education of four years or less have completed this type of education, and the corresponding figure for Norwegian-born with immigrant parents is one out of ten. Among the rest of the population, almost one out of four have completed this type of education.

Figures show that the newest immigrants are considerably higher educated than those who have lived here for a long time. While 47 per cent of those who have lived in Norway for 0-4 years have higher education, the corresponding figure for those who have lived here for 20 years or more is 32 per cent.