Countries With the Lowest Compulsory Schooling

Every country with a figure for compulsory schooling, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Guam (0), New Caledonia (0) and Bangladesh (5). The middle country of the 197 has 10.

What this measures

Compulsory education, duration (years). Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2025–2025. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on compulsory schooling

• Countries With the Highest Compulsory Schooling
• Compulsory schooling by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest PISA Maths
• Countries With the Lowest PISA Reading
• Countries With the Lowest PISA Science
• Countries With the Lowest Primary Completion
• Countries With the Lowest Expected Schooling
• Countries With the Lowest Mean Years of Schooling
• Countries With the Lowest Education Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Primary Enrollment

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.