Is there a teacher shortage? Global learning crisis statistics

Evidence snapshot:

• The 69 million teacher gap by 2030 cements the collapse of global education targets.
• 84 million children and youth are projected to be out of school by 2030.
• The world is $100 billion short each year to deliver on basic education promises.

By 2030, the world will be short 69 million teachers and leave 84 million children out of school. Some nations are investing up to 14.7% of GDP in education, while others spend less than 1%, creating a dangerous global imbalance. 

Inside, you’ll find the most recent, data-driven view of the learning crisis and what it signals about the future. For those shaping policy or reporting on global trends, the insights ahead offer critical clarity and practical direction.

Teacher shortage worldwide

• The 69 million teacher gap by 2030 locks the global education crisis into place.

Percentage of primary school teachers with minimum required qualifications by region and year:

Copy embed code for this image

• Globally, the share of qualified primary school teachers dipped slightly from 85.9% in 2015 to 85.7% in 2022.
• Central & South Asia saw the strongest growth in teacher qualifications, rising from 72.4% to 85.3%.
• Europe & North America dropped sharply in qualified teachers, falling from 96% in 2015 to 88.2% in 2022.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, qualified teacher rates declined from 71.9% to 69%, deepening the region’s education staffing crisis.

Teacher shortage map for the United States

Copy embed code for this image

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/23353936

What is the percentage of teachers leaving the profession within 5 years in the U.S.?

• Half of all new teachers quit within five years in the U.S.

Teacher burnout rate in the U.S.

• In the U.S., 44% of teachers report feeling burned out “very often,” making teaching one of the most exhausting professions.

Teacher shortage in Europe

Copy embed code for this image

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/23354592

Teacher shortage in Australia

• Australia faces a projected shortage of 4,100 teachers by 2025, threatening classroom capacity nationwide.

Teacher shortage in the UK

• In the UK, over 6 in every 1,000 teaching positions went unfilled in 2024, exposing a deepening staffing crisis.

Teacher shortage in France

• In France, teacher absences led to 15 million hours of lost classroom time during the 2022–2023 school year.

Teacher shortage in India

• India reported a shortage of 722,413 elementary and 124,262 secondary school teachers as of December 2023, straining its education system at scale.

Teacher shortage in Africa

• Sub-Saharan Africa needs 15 million additional teachers to keep pace with its rapidly growing school-age population.

Teacher shortage statistics:

• Globally, teacher attrition rates have nearly doubled, from 4.6% in 2015 to 9% in 2022.
• In the United States, approximately 407,000 teaching positions were either unfilled or occupied by individuals not fully certified during the 2022–2023 school year - almost 1 in 8 teachers.
• In the United States, 86% of public schools reported challenges hiring teachers for the 2023–24 school year, with special education, physical science, and foreign language positions being the most difficult to fill.

The 69 million teacher gap is a structural failure that will undermine global productivity, gender equality, and poverty reduction for generations. Nations that underinvest now will face an underqualified workforce later, locking in economic disadvantage.

But a shortage of teachers is only half the crisis; the other half is the growing number of children who may never see a classroom at all.

How many out-of-school children are there?

• By 2030, 84 million children and youth are projected to be out of school, locking in a global education crisis.

While millions remain excluded from school, another gap emerges among those who do enroll: who actually graduates, and where?

School graduation rates by country

Top 20 countries with the highest graduation rates

Copy embed code for this image

• South Korea leads the world with a school graduation rate of 99%, setting a global benchmark for education completion.
• Georgia boasts a 96% graduation rate, placing it among the global leaders in school completion.
• Japan’s 95% graduation rate reflects its strong national commitment to universal education.

High graduation rates only tell one side of the story. And dropout data reveals how many students fall through the cracks before ever reaching the finish line.

School dropout rates by country

Top 20 countries with the highest dropout rates

• In Somalia, an estimated 98% of students drop out before completing school, reflecting one of the worst education crises globally.
• With a 98% dropout rate, Niger faces near-total school abandonment among its youth.
• Burkina Faso’s 97% school dropout rate signals a systemic collapse in sustained education access.

The extreme divide between nations with near-universal graduation and those with dropout rates over 90% reveals a two-speed world in education: one building future-ready workforces, the other structurally excluding entire generations. These gaps will echo into global labor markets, migration trends, and geopolitical instability. For researchers and education leaders tracking graduation rates becomes a global economic strategy.

To understand how these trends play out within a single high-income nation, we turn to dropout patterns across U.S. states and demographic groups.

School dropout rate by state in the U.S.

Copy embed code for this image

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/23356137

Dropout rate by race in the U.S.

Copy embed code for this image

• Hispanic dropout rates dropped dramatically from 11.2% in 1972 to 6.5% in 2017, cutting the rate nearly in half over 45 years.
• Black students reduced dropout rates from 9.6% in 1972 to 5.9% in 2017, a clear but slower decline compared to Hispanic peers.
• In 1972, the gap between White and Hispanic dropout rates was 5.7 percentage points; by 2017, it narrowed to 2.7, showing progress in closing racial disparities in education.

The wide variation in dropout rates across U.S. states points to the decisive role of education policy in shaping outcomes. States that invest in targeted support and accountability consistently outperform others, regardless of demographics. Researchers and educators should begin using dropout trends as forward-looking economic indicators to guide funding, workforce planning, and intervention strategy.

But dropout patterns are shaped long before high school. They begin in early childhood, and they mirror deeper systemic inequalities across regions and genders.

Education inequality statistics

• The global education system faces an annual financing shortfall of $100 billion.
• In low-income countries, 90% of 10-year-olds cannot read and understand a simple text, underscoring a severe learning crisis.
• Despite global efforts, the number of out-of-school children and youth has decreased by only 1% over the past decade, leaving 251 million still without access to education.
• Across OECD countries, only 18% of children under 2 are enrolled in early childhood education, with some countries reporting rates in the single digits, highlighting significant early education access gaps.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, girls are more likely than boys to be out of school at every education level, with only 37% completing lower secondary education compared to higher rates in other regions.

These disparities don’t happen in a vacuum, they reflect how much, and how unevenly, countries choose to fund education systems.

Government expenditure on education by country

• Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, spends just 0.3% of its GDP on education - the lowest in the world.
• While most countries invest around 4–5% of GDP in education, American Samoa leads globally at 14.7%, nearly quadrupling the global average.
• High-income economies like Japan (3.2%) and Ireland (3%) spend less on education, as a share of GDP, than many lower-income nations.

The $100 billion annual financing gap, paired with the fact that 90% of 10-year-olds in low-income countries cannot read, reflects a failure not of capability but of priority. The global economy is being shaped by nations that underinvest in the very foundation of long-term growth: early education. To reverse the trend, education must be repositioned as a top-tier development investment on par with infrastructure and climate. Because without it, no strategy for equity or innovation can hold.

Conclusions:

• The global teacher shortage threatens long-term economic resilience. The world’s projected shortfall of 69 million teachers by 2030 is a global talent pipeline failure in slow motion. Without enough educators, nations will struggle to equip future workers with the skills needed for innovation and productivity. To avoid this economic drag, governments must treat teacher recruitment as a strategic investment in human capital, not a recurring expense.
• Out-of-school children are a leading indicator of market risk. Eighty-four million children are expected to remain out of school by the end of the decade. It represents the future instability in consumer markets and workforce development. For global stakeholders, closing education access gaps now is essential to securing future economic inclusion and social cohesion.
• Education spending reflects which economies are planning for longevity. While some nations invest over 10% of their GDP in education, others commit less than 1%, creating a fault line between future-ready and fragile states. This is a strong predictor which economies are preparing to compete. Redirecting global support toward underfunded systems is a strategic prevention against global inequality and instability.

Methodology

• To estimate the number of out-of-school primary-age children in the United States in 2022, we multiplied the reported out-of-school rate (3.9822%) by the estimated total number of primary school-age children (24 million). This provides an approximate count of children not enrolled in primary school.
• To estimate the dropout rate, we subtracted the reported graduation rate from 100%. This assumes all non-graduates dropped out and doesn’t account for late completions or transfers, but offers a simple approximation.

Sources:

• “251M Children and Youth Still out of School, despite Decades of Progress (UNESCO Report).” UNESCO, 31 Oct. 2025, https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/251m-children-and-youth-still-out-school-despite-decades-progress-unesco-report.
• Adams, Richard. “Up to 300,000 Children Could Be Missing out on Education in England, Thinktank Suggests.” The Guardian, 3 Dec. 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/03/up-to-300000-children-could-be-missing-out-on-education-in-england-thinktank-suggests.
• Author(s): Joel McFarland, Jiashan. “Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2019 | IES.” IESicon-Dot-Govicon-Httpsicon-Quote, 1 Jan. 2020, https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/report/compendium/trends-high-school-dropout-and-completion-rates-united-states-2019.
• BULLENS, Lara. “Why so Many French Teachers Are Calling It Quits.” France 24, 14 Sept. 2024, https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240914-why-french-teachers-walking-away-from-jobs-education-france.
• “Development Topics.” World Bank, https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• Division, United. “— SDG Indicators.” Sustainable Development Goals, https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2024/. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• Esterhuizen, Paul. “Teacher Shortage Problem a Self-Inflicted One, Says School-Days CEO.” BizCommunity, 20 Apr. 2429, https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/teacher-shortage-problem-a-self-inflicted-one-says-school-days-ceo-908784a.
• “Filling Critical Teacher Gaps.” Australian Education Union Menu, https://www.aeufederal.org.au/news-media/news/2024/filling-critical-teacher-gaps. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• News, ABC. “Most of the US Is Dealing with a Teaching Shortage, but the Data Isn’t so Simple.” ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/US/map-shows-us-states-dealing-teaching-shortage-data/story?id=96752632. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• Press Release – Most Public Schools Face Challenges in Hiring Teachers and Other Personnel Entering the 2023-24 Academic Year – October 17, 2023. https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/10_17_2023.asp. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• “World Bank Open Data.” World Bank Open Data, https://data.worldbank.org. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/documents/respect/teaching-profession-facts.doc. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379171. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/state-teacher-shortages-vacancy-resource-tool-2024. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/global-report-teachers-what-you-need-know . Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/children-out-of-school-percent-of-primary-school-age-wb-data.html. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/indicators-of-education-systems-programme.html. Accessed 22 May 2025.
• https://data.unicef.org/topic/gender/gender-disparities-in-education/. Accessed 22 May 2025.