69.0% ▲ +16.5%
Higher than 99% of urban centre areas.
- 2011: 59.2%
- 2016: 64.3%
- 2021: 69.0%
Share of people whose highest year of school is Year 12 or equivalent.
Sydney · Urban Centre
Education & Qualifications in Sydney
How far people went at school, the qualifications they hold and what they studied.
High levels of learning mark Sydney, which ranks among the most educated areas of its kind. Over a third of adults hold a bachelor degree or higher, and the proportion of people finishing high school has climbed steadily over the last decade.
Schooling
Highest year of school completed.
School completion is far above the state and national figures, with 69.0% of residents finishing Year 12. This is a significant increase from 2011, when only 59.2% had completed their final year of school.
Highest year of school
View on map →In Sydney, Year 12 is the majority at 74%; Year 10 is next at 14%.
Qualifications
Post-school qualifications and degrees.
The area is well above the national average for higher education, as 35.0% of adults hold a bachelor degree or higher. This includes a strong presence of postgraduate degrees at 15.1% and bachelor degrees at 34.5%.
35.0% ▲ +37.2%
Higher than 99% of urban centre areas.
- 2011: 25.5%
- 2016: 29.8%
- 2021: 35.0%
Share of people aged 15+ whose highest qualification is a bachelor degree or above (incl. graduate and postgraduate).
Highest qualification level
View on map →In Sydney, the largest group is Bachelor degree at 41%, followed by Certificate III / IV (19%) and Postgraduate degree (18%).
Field of study
What people studied.
The most common fields of study are management and commerce at 25.3%, followed by society and culture at 12.2% and engineering and related fields at 11.6%.
Sources
- Census of Population and Housing — Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 (CC BY 4.0).
More for Sydney
Cite this page
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). Education & Qualifications in Sydney [Census of Population and Housing]. CensusAtlas, used under CC BY 4.0. https://censusatlas.au/region/ucl/UCL101001/sydney/topic/education