59.2% ▲ +21.0%
Higher than 90% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 48.9%
- 2016: 53.6%
- 2021: 59.2%
Share of people whose highest year of school is Year 12 or equivalent.
Adelaide · Urban Area
Education & Qualifications in Adelaide
How far people went at school, the qualifications they hold and what they studied.
Management and commerce are the most common fields of study in Adelaide, where high levels of schooling and university degrees define the workforce. This is a well-educated area where 26% of adults hold a bachelor degree or higher, a figure that has climbed steadily over the last decade.
Schooling
Highest year of school completed.
High school completion is a strong point for Adelaide, with 59.2% of people finishing Year 12. This is well above the South Australian figure and reflects a 10 percentage point increase since 2011.
Highest year of school
View on map →In Adelaide, Year 12 is the majority at 62%; Year 11 is next at 15%.
Qualifications
Post-school qualifications and degrees.
The area has a much higher share of university graduates than most other places. Around 26% of adults have a bachelor degree or higher, which is well above the state average and rose by 7.7 percentage points since 2011.
26.0% ▲ +41.9%
Higher than 89% of urban area areas.
- 2011: 18.3%
- 2016: 21.3%
- 2021: 26.0%
Share of people aged 15+ whose highest qualification is a bachelor degree or above (incl. graduate and postgraduate).
Highest qualification level
View on map →Adelaide splits fairly evenly between Bachelor degree (33%) and Certificate III / IV (31%), with Advanced diploma / diploma at 17%.
Field of study
What people studied.
Qualifications are spread across several professional fields. The most common are management and commerce at 19.2%, followed by engineering and related fields at 14% and society and culture at 13.7%.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Adelaide
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Education & Qualifications in Adelaide [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/sua/4001/adelaide/topic/education