RPHC5 Thematic Report: Educational Characteristics of the population

The overall non-attendance rate (never been to school or not yet attended school) for the population aged 3 years and above in Rwanda is 16.4%, which is significantly lower than the 2012 census figure of 25.5%. 

The percentage of females who have never attended school or are not yet in school (17.8%) is higher than that of males (14.9%).

The majority of individuals who have never attended school or are not yet in school are located in rural areas (18.3%). Primary school is the most common level of education, with 58.3% of the population aged 3 and above attending.

Looking at lower secondary education, the numbers show that 8.8% of males have reached this level, slightly lower than the 10.0% of females who have done the same.

Moving on to upper secondary education, 6.9% of males and 6.9% of females have achieved this level, while university attendance is 3.5%. 

The majority of both male and female resident population aged 15 and above in Rwanda hold a primary school certificate, with 28.6% of both sexes, 28.4% of males, and 28.8% of females attaining this level of education.

 A considerable portion of the population possesses various levels of secondary education certificates, such as O'level certificates, A2/D6/D7 certificates, and Diploma (A1): D6+2-3yrs. These certificates are held by 7.4%, 7.9%, and 0.7% of the total population, respectively.

Reference documents (PDF & Excel)

Unless otherwise indicated, data and analysis by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.