Secondary-level education among rural and urban young people in Europe 2021

The countries in Europe with the greatest disparity in secondary-level educational attainment between their urban and rural areas in 2021 were Bulgaria, Romania, and Belarus. In Bulgaria, while 92 percent of young people in urban areas graduate from upper secondary school, less than three-quarters in rural areas do so. There is variation between European countries in whether it is rural or urban areas that have higher educational attainment - for instance, in Austria, rural areas show over 90 percent of young people attaining secondary level education, while in urban areas this rate falls to around 80 percent. Regional disparities may be driven by relative deprivation of certain areas or by cultural differences, particularly the likelihood of young people to leave school to work in agriculture in rural areas.