Indicator
Trends in qualifications
Published
29 April 2025
Last updated
12 November 2025
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- Since 2004, the percentage of people with a degree or equivalent as their highest qualification has more than doubled.
- The proportion of people with no qualifications has more than halved since 2004.
Education plays an important role in shaping people’s health by influencing factors such as income and employment. In turn, these provide the resources people need to maintain good health, such as access to nutritious food and safe housing. It can also support better health literacy, making it easier for people to understand health information and allow more informed health choices as a result.
This chart shows the percentage of people in the UK aged 25–64 years and their highest level of qualification reached, from 2004 to 2024.
- In 2004, the percentage of people with a degree or equivalent highest qualification was 18.8%, more than doubling to 42.5% by 2024.
- The percentage of people whose highest qualification is below degree or equivalent level decreased at all qualification levels between 2004 and 2024. The percentage of people with:
- A-level or equivalent highest qualification fell from 20.6% to 18.9%.
- GCSEs or equivalent highest qualifications fell from 19.2% to 16.3%.
- ‘Other qualifications’ as their highest qualification fell from 12.8% to 6.8%.
- No qualifications was 15.3%. By 2024, this number had more than halved to 6.2%.
- ‘Other qualifications’ include entry and level 1 qualifications.
- Missing values and people who responded ‘Don’t know’ to their highest qualification level have been omitted from the chart but not from the analysis.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey, via NOMIS and UKDA, UK, 2024
