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The educational level of immigrants to EU countries has been rising for 10 years. This also applies to immigrants from other EU countries as well as non-EU countries in 2024 compared to 2023. This general trend can be observed in all countries, but in some cases at very different levels and to varying degrees. Women are ahead in all groups in terms of educational attainment. The good education of immigrants can promote economic development.
Berlin, 23 June – Immigrants to the European Union are more educated than ever before. A new analysis by the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) reveals that in 2024, the share of immigrants holding university degrees or equivalent qualifications reached record levels, continuing a strong upward trend seen over the past decade.
Among immigrants from other EU countries, the proportion with tertiary education rose from 33.8% in 2023 to 35.2% in 2024 (from 50.7% to 53.5% in Ireland). The increase was mirrored among immigrants from non-EU countries, whose share grew from 30.9% to 32.1% (from 69.1% to 70.6% in Ireland). By comparison, the native-born EU population saw a slower rise, from 35.8% to 36.8% (from 50.8% to 52.7% in Ireland).
“This ongoing rise in education levels highlights the potential that migrants bring to EU labor markets,” says Tommaso Frattini, Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) at RFBerlin and Professor at the University of Milan. “If their skills are fully harnessed, migrants can be a major driver of economic growth across the EU.”
The overall rise in education is evident across the EU. Strikingly, the current share of non-EU immigrants with university degrees (32.1%) now matches that of the native population just five years ago, in 2019.
Yet the pace of change varies across member states. In Spain, Italy, and Greece, EU migrants were already less educated than natives in 2010, and the gap has widened further by 2024. By contrast, in Sweden, Denmark, and Czechia, EU migrants have consistently been more educated than natives—and that advantage has grown over time.
Women continue to lead in educational attainment across all groups, and they also experienced the highest educational growth. Between 2023 and 2024, immigrant women from the EU experienced the largest increase in educational attainment (+1.5 percentage points).
“This gender gap in education has been remarkably consistent across time,” says Christian Dustmann, Co-Director of CReAM at RFBerlin and Professor at University College London (UCL). “Interestingly, the difference tends to widen across all population groups over time.”
The findings are based on Eurostat data and define immigrants as foreign-born individuals aged 25 to 64.
Notabene: If your country is not in the text, we are happy to provide you with the data on request. We have data for all 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. For the UK the data end with the year 2019.
For enquiries in English and Italian: Prof. Tommaso Frattini,
0039/ 347/ 640 38 45; tf@rfberlin.com
In English and German: Prof. Christian Dustmann, 0044/ 7818 048 380; cd@rfberlin.com
Paper: 'Education of Migrants in the European Union' by Tommaso Frattini and Giuseppe Pulito; based on data from Eurostat
https://www.rfberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/RFBerlin_DP-Education2025.pd...
Education Levels Among Immigrants in the EU Reach Record High
Copyright: RFBerlin
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Education Levels Among Immigrants in the EU Reach Record High
Copyright: RFBerlin
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