Tertiary Education Rates of Immigrants in Europe Reach Record High, but Averages Hide Large Differences
Educational attainment among immigrants in the European Union has risen steadily since 2017, but EU-wide averages conceal substantial differences across origin groups, destination countries, and gender. This is the conclusion of a new report by the Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration (CReAM) at the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin) based on Eurostat data covering adults aged 25–64 across the EU.
Tertiary attainment has increased across all population groups. Among EU-born immigrants, the share of adults with tertiary education rose from 29.4 percent to 36.0 percent, while among non-EU-born immigrants it increased from 26.0 percent to 32.6 percent. Among native-born adults, the share with tertiary education rose from 30.3 percent in 2017 to 37.7 percent in 2025.
“Educational attainment is rising not only among natives, but also among immigrants from both within and outside the EU,” says Tommaso Frattini, Director of CReAM@RFBerlin and Professor of Economics at the University of Milan. “This suggests that the skills profile of Europe’s population is improving across origin groups, even though important differences remain.”
The report also highlights large differences across European countries. In Ireland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Portugal and Czechia, immigrants are more likely than natives to hold tertiary degrees. In most other EU countries, immigrants have lower tertiary attainment than natives, although the size of the gap varies considerably.
“There is no single immigrant education gap in Europe,” says Christian Dustmann, Director of RFBerlin and Professor of Economics at University College London. “The educational profile of immigrants depends strongly on who migrates, where they come from, and where they settle. This means that integration and skills policies need to be tailored to national contexts rather than based on EU-wide averages alone.”
Ireland stands out as a particularly striking example of how migration policy can shape the educational composition of immigration. In 2025, tertiary attainment among natives and EU-born immigrants was identical at 55.1 percent, while the rate among non-EU-born immigrants reached 70.7 percent (compared to the EU average of 32.6 percent). The report links this pattern to Ireland’s reliance on high-skilled migration channels, including Critical Skills Employment Permits aimed at attracting qualified non-EEA workers in shortage occupations such as ICT, engineering, healthcare and specialised professional services.
“Ireland shows that immigrant educational profiles are shaped not only by who wants to migrate, but also by the migration channels countries create,” adds Dustmann. “Dedicated high-skilled visa routes can strongly affect the composition of non-EU migration. This is why policy design matters for the skills profile of immigration.”
The report also reveals important gender differences. Women have higher tertiary attainment than men across all major origin groups in the EU. However, within-sex comparisons show that immigrant-native gaps are generally largest among non-EU-born women, with particularly pronounced differences in countries such as Slovenia, Finland and Spain.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Christian Dustmann; cd@rfberlin.com; 0044 7818 048 380
Prof. Tommaso Frattini; tf@rfberlin.com; 0039 347 640 38 45
Originalpublikation:
Immigrant Educational Attainment in the European Union: Origin, Gender and Cross-Country Differences, CReAM Report 04/2026, by Authors: Christian Dustmann, Tommaso Frattini and Camilla Piovesan. https://www.rfberlin.com/cream-reports/
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