The Formal supplementary education are new statistics from Statistics Norway. The first release will be on 3 February 2026, when the figures for 2022-2024 are published.
Statistikk innhold
Statistics on
Formal supplementary education
The statistics cover persons (aged 22 or older) who take formal further education in higher education, post-secondary vocational education or at upper secondary education level. The statistics include figures on the number of people in formal further education, as well as characteristics of the individuals and the programs.
Selected figures from these statistics
- Persons in formal further education, by labour force status, age and genderDownload table as ...Persons in formal further education, by labour force status, age and gender
2023/2024 Both sexes Females Males Labour force, total Total 186 181 111 559 74 622 22-34 years 81 584 43 877 37 707 35-44 years 61 915 39 071 22 844 45-54 years 33 563 22 833 10 730 55-66 years 8 603 5 560 3 043 67 years or older 516 218 298 Employed persons Total 153 595 92 383 61 212 22-34 years 62 825 33 629 29 196 35-44 years 52 573 32 942 19 631 45-54 years 30 290 20 713 9 577 55-66 years 7 719 5 025 2 694 67 years or older 188 74 114 Not employed and unknown Total 32 586 19 176 13 410 22-34 years 18 759 10 248 8 511 35-44 years 9 342 6 129 3 213 45-54 years 3 273 2 120 1 153 55-66 years 884 535 349 67 years or older 328 144 184 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ...
About the statistics
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 2 February 2026.
Formal supplementary education
In these statistics, supplementary education is defined as formal education taken by the following groups:
- Persons aged 35 years or older who participated in formal education
- Personer aged 22-34 years who participated in formal education, and at the same time have had a break/pause in their education of at least 3 years since the age of 19.
Formal education includes all education leading to a qualification which is recognised in a (or the equivalent of a) national framework of qualification. These statistics cover upper secondary school, apprentices and practice candidates in upper secondary education, post-secondary vocational education, as well as tertiary education giving official credit points at universities or colleges.
Statistics cover education as of October 1st, as well as completed educations in the period between October 1 and September 30.
Norwegian Standard for classification of education (NUS)
The Norwegian Standard for classification of education (NUS) classifies different educations by level and field of education. A 6-digit code is used to identify a specific education or study programme. The first digit in the code identifies the level of education. For more information, see Standard for classification of education (NUS)
Level of formal further education
The definition is based on the NUS-classification codes. The first digit in this code identifies the level of education.
Personal characteristics
Place of residence, gender and age
Place of residence, gender and age refer to the status as of January 1.
Immigration category
Immigrants are persons born abroad of two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents. Norwegian-born to immigrant parents are persons who are born in Norway of two parents born abroad, and in addition have four grandparents born abroad. See Classification of immigration categories
Highest educational attainment
The definition of educational attainment is explained in the article Hvordan klassifiseres en persons høyeste utdanningsnivå? (in Norwegian). In these statistics, we use the highest educational attainment before a formal further education, for instance the educational attainment as of October 1, 2022 for persons in formal further education in the school year 2022-2023.
Employment-related characteristics
Employed persons
Employed persons are persons who performed work for pay or profit for at least one hour in the reference week (3rd week in November), or who were temporarily absent from work because of illness, holidays etc. Conscripts are classified as employed persons. Persons engaged by government measures to promote employment are also included if they receive wages. This follows recommendations from the International Labour Organization, ILO.
If employed persons have more than one employment in the reference week, one is determined as the most important. Information on individuals’ work- and business related variables comes from the main employment.
For more information, se Employment, register-based.
Employer-related characteristics
Industry
Information about the industry is based on information from Statistics Norway's Business Register. The information refers to the establishment where an employed person works.
Employment-related charachteristics
Occupation
Information about the occupation is based on the Classification of occupations. Occupational codes are determined by the work tasks.
Full-time/part-time
Full time is when the contractual percentage of full-time equivalent equals 100 or more. Part-time is when the contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is less than 100.
Contractual percentage of full-time equivalent
Contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is what you have agreed to work according to your contract of employment. The employer shall not consider additional work, overtime or different types of absence from work or if the hours have been paid or not. The information on contractual percentage of full-time equivalent is based on what is reported to the a-ordningen.
For persons that are paid by the hour without contractual working hours per week, e.g. on-call temporary workers, the employer can report 0 as contractual percentage of full-time equivalent. Statistics Norway will then calculate contractual percentage of full-time equivalent from what is reported as paid hours and number of hours that corresponds to a 100 per cent position in the moth of reporting.
The statistics use the following standard classifications:
Persons
Formal further education
Education
Division for education and culture statistics
Figures are presented at national level and county level. Data on participation in further formal education cointain information that makes it possible to provide figures at other regional levels.
Statistics are published yearly.
Not relevant.
Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.
Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.
The system for assuring the quality of Norwegian official statistics is based on quality requirements in the Statistics Act and in the European Statistics Code of Practice.The annual report on the quality of official statistics assesses compliance with the quality requirements for all official statistics as a whole.
The National programme for official statistics sets the framework for the areas Statistics Norway and other public authorities produce statistics on. The programme defines and outlines official statistics.
Further information about the system for quality in official statistics can be found at ssb.no
The statistics present register-based information on persons in formal further education.
The annual data on participation in formal further education that the statistics are based on, are also included in the National Education Database (NUDB). NUDB contains individual-level data on education statistics, such as data on ongoing and competed education, as well as educational attainment.
Education statistics are individual-based, meaning that a personal identification number is linked to each educational activity. Reporting of personal identification numbers allows Statistics Norway (SSB) to match data to characteristics from other registers, such as information on place of residence and immigration status.
The statistics were published for the first time in February 2026, with time series going back to 2022.
The statistics are funded by the Ministry of Education and Research.
The statistics provide relevant authorities and other users with information about the scope of participation in formal further education and types of further education individuals participate in.
Key users in Norway include the Ministry of Education and Research and the Directorate of higher education and competence. Other users are other ministries, research organisations, trade unions, media and private persons.
No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.
The statistics on formal further education are part of the statistics on adult learning and skills and can be viewed in relation to other statistics that shed light on adults’ learning activities, such as the Adult Education Surveyand the Learning Conditions Monitor. The Adult Education Survey highlights participation in formal education among adults, but does not identify whether the programs are formal further education. The Learning Conditions Monitor also provides statistics on participation in formal further education and defines the concept of ‘formal further education’ in the same way as in these statistics. Unlike the statistics on formal further education, which use register data, the Learning Conditions Monitor is based on survey data. Therefore, figures from the two statistics are not directly comparable.
Statistics Norway (SSB) also publishes statistics on further education among health and social care personnelbased on register data. Health and social care personnel are included in the population for the statistics on formal further education. Unlike the statistics on further education among health and social care personnel, which focus on participation in specific programs relevant to certain professions, the statistics on formal further education cover participation in all educational activities, regardless of whether the education is relevant for specific occupational groups.
In the statistics on formal further education, the definition of formal further education is also based on the participant’s age and previous education history, which further distinguishes it from the statistics on further education among health and social care personnel. Therefore, figures from the two statistics are not directly comparable. For more information on how the figures for further education among health and social care personnel are compiled, see the article More nurses pursue further and master’s educationand the box ‘New statistics on further and master’s education for health and social care personnel.
The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).
The statistics include information on ongoing education as of October 1 and completed education from October 1 to September 30.
There are several criteria for how a student’s educational activity is recorded. A student is registered with only one educational activity in the statistics, even if they may be enrolled in multiple activities at the same or different institutions. Education at the highest level is retained over others. This means that if a person is pursuing continuing education at both upper secondary level and university/college level, the person is recorded at the university/college level. Completed education is prioritized over ongoing education. If a person has completed multiple programs during the same year, the highest level is prioritized. Degrees are prioritized over credits obtained. For education at upper secondary level, apprenticeships are prioritized over regular upper secondary schooling.
Primary school, folk high schools, labor market courses, and individuals in other types of upper secondary education are not included in the statistics.
The statistics are based on a complete enumeration; therefore, no sampling is used in this statistics. The annual data on education that the statistics are based on, are also included in the National Education Database (NUDB). NUDB contains individual-level data on education statistics, such as data on ongoing and competed education, as well as educational attainment.
For upper secondary education, the main source is the counties’ administrative system for admission to upper secondary education (VIGO). Data on post-secondary vocational education as well as higher education are collected from DBH (Database for Statistics on Higher Education), which gathers data from each institution.
Statistics Norway collects student data education pursuant to the Statistical Act.
Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. Since autumn 1999, an automated reception control of the education data has been carried out. The reception control checks whether the observations have valid values for the various variables and compares them with the previous year’s data. The data also undergo recoding and processing to ensure that the variables have valid values.
The statistics are based on a complete enumeration of the number of students during the period from October 1 to September 30.
Interviewers and everyone who works at Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality. Statistics Norway has its own data protection officer.
Statistics Norway does not publish figures where there is a risk of identifying individual data about persons or households.
The rounding method is used in these statistics to ensure this.
More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.
There can be various sources of error in statistical surveys. Errors may also occur during the coding of the education data collected and when linking to other information.
For enrolled students, the official reference date is October 1. If data providers use a different reference date, this may result in inaccuracies in the student statistics. Other possible errors include cases where individuals reported as current students should have been reported as having completed an education.
For completed education, there may be errors in the registration of degrees obtained. This is partly due to underreporting by institutions and partly to incorrect timing of degree registration. Degrees may have been recorded when the diploma was issued.
Both misreporting of current students and delayed registration of completed education affect the statistics on continuing education. These errors can lead to inaccuracies in the student population at all educational levels within formal further education.
A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.