55.5% ▲ +19.9%
Higher than 86% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 46.3%
- 2016: 48.4%
- 2021: 55.5%
Share of people whose highest year of school is Year 12 or equivalent.
Cairns · Urban Area
Education & Qualifications in Cairns
How far people went at school, the qualifications they hold and what they studied.
More people in Cairns have finished high school and university since 2011. This shift is led by a big jump in university degrees, with 19.7% of adults now holding a bachelor degree or higher. While these figures have risen, they remain well below the national average.
Schooling
Highest year of school completed.
High school completion has risen 9.2 points since 2011 to 55.5%. This is much higher than most similar areas, although it remains a little below the Queensland figure.
Highest year of school
View on map →In Cairns, Year 12 is the majority at 62%; Year 10 is next at 21%.
Qualifications
Post-school qualifications and degrees.
The share of adults with a bachelor degree or higher rose 8.2 points over a decade to 19.7%. While this is much higher than most similar areas, it is well below the national figure of 26.3%.
19.7% ▲ +70.9%
Higher than 73% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 11.5%
- 2016: 12.6%
- 2021: 19.7%
Share of people aged 15+ whose highest qualification is a bachelor degree or above (incl. graduate and postgraduate).
Highest qualification level
View on map →In Cairns, the largest group is Certificate III / IV at 39%, followed by Bachelor degree (27%) and Advanced diploma / diploma (19%).
Field of study
What people studied.
The most common fields of study are management and commerce at 15.8%, followed by engineering and related fields at 14.0%.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Cairns
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Education & Qualifications in Cairns [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sua/3004/cairns/topic/education