The statistics has changed name from Adults in primary and lower secondary school to Preparatory education for adults.
Statistikk innhold
Statistics on
Preparatory education for adults
The statistics cover participants in preparatory education for adults. The programme replaces the former primary and lower secondary education for adults.
Selected figures from these statistics
- Preparatory education for adultsDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults
2024/2025 Both sexes Males Females Unknown sex Share of males Share of females Age, total 8 546 3 115 5 235 196 36.4 61.3 16-19 years 1 311 906 405 0 69.1 30.9 20-29 years 1 974 818 1 156 0 41.4 58.6 30-39 years 2 622 687 1 935 0 26.2 73.8 40-49 years 1 748 500 1 248 0 28.6 71.4 50 years or older 687 199 488 0 29.0 71.0 Unknown age 204 5 3 196 2.5 1.5 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Preparatory education for adults, by region and sexDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults, by region and sex
2024/2025 Both sexes Males Females Unknown sex The whole country 8 546 3 115 5 235 196 Østfold 508 167 327 14 Akershus 1 081 423 640 18 Oslo - Oslove 1 362 346 1 014 2 Innlandet 718 281 421 16 Buskerud 383 137 239 7 Vestfold 450 177 255 18 Telemark 316 129 181 6 Agder 621 270 318 33 Rogaland 830 271 540 19 Vestland 729 290 421 18 Møre og Romsdal 343 154 183 6 Trøndelag - Trööndelage 611 238 360 13 Nordland - Nordlánnda 288 108 167 13 Troms - Romsa - Tromssa 237 96 131 10 Finnmark - Finnmárku - Finmarkku 69 28 38 3 Svalbard 0 0 0 0 306241 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Preparatory education for adults, by module and sexDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults, by module and sex1
2024/2025 Both sexes Males Females Unknown sex Total 8 103 2 952 4 963 188 Module 1 1 853 720 1 062 71 Module 2 1 889 680 1 168 41 Module 3 1 729 616 1 086 27 Module 4 1 902 672 1 210 20 Basic module 730 264 437 29 1Includes only participants with module-structured training Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Preparatory education for adults, by country backgroundDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults, by country background
2024/2025 Number of participants Share of participants Total 8 546 100.0 Ukraine 556 6.5 Eritrea 899 10.5 Ethiopia 187 2.2 Congo (the Democratic Republic of the) 622 7.3 Morocco 116 1.4 Somalia 738 8.6 Sudan 260 3.0 South Sudan 88 1.0 Afghanistan 905 10.6 Iraq 171 2.0 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 118 1.4 Pakistan 104 1.2 Syrian Arab Republic (the) 2 568 30.0 Thailand 79 0.9 Türkiye 62 0.7 Rest of the countries 1 073 12.6 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Preparatory education for adults, by years of residenceDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults, by years of residence
2024/2025 Number of participants Share of participants Total 8 546 100.0 Under 1 year of residence 152 1.8 1 year of residence 1 105 12.9 2 years of residence 1 771 20.7 3 years of residence 1 300 15.2 4 years of residence 975 11.4 5 years of residence 372 4.4 6 years of residence 380 4.4 7 years of residence 320 3.7 8 years of residence 326 3.8 9 years of residence 252 2.9 10 years or more of residence 1 296 15.2 Not immigrated 10 0.1 Unknown years of residence 287 3.4 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Preparatory education for adults, by age, sex and share of immigrantsDownload table as ...Preparatory education for adults, by age, sex and share of immigrants
2024/2025 Both sexes Males Females Unknown sex Share of all immigrants, both sexes Share of all immigrants, males Share of all immigrants, females Age, total 8 546 3 115 5 235 196 1.0 0.7 1.2 16-19 years 1 311 906 405 0 3.5 4.5 2.4 20-29 years 1 974 818 1 156 0 1.5 1.3 1.8 30-39 years 2 622 687 1 935 0 1.2 0.6 1.7 40-49 years 1 748 500 1 248 0 0.8 0.4 1.1 50 years or older 687 199 488 0 0.3 0.1 0.4 Unknown age 204 5 3 196 0.0 0.0 0.0 Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ...
About the statistics
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 18 March 2026.
Participant
A person who, during the reference period, was registered by a municipality, school, or adult education center as a participant in preparatory education for adults for according to section 18-2 of the Education Act.
Adults in primary and lower secondary school
Section 18-2 of the Education Act states that adults in need of preparatory education for adults have an individual right to education. Adults who cannot benefit satisfactorily from regular education are entitled to special education under section 19-5 of the Education Act. The municipality is responsible for providing such education.
Module-structured education
Module-structured education (hkdir.no) involves organizing the education into smaller units. Participants are to be assessed and placed in the module that best matches the competence they already possess. The levels range from module 1 to module 4. In addition, there is a basic module for participants who have not previously learned to read and write.
Immigrant
Individuals who are born abroad to two foreign-born parents and have four foreign-born grandparents.
Norwegian-born with immigrant parents.
Individuals who are born in Norway to two foreign-born parents and have four foreign-born grandparents.
Country Background
Own, or possibly mother's, father's, or grandparents' foreign country of birth. For individuals born abroad, this is (with few exceptions) their own country of birth. For individuals born in Norway, it is the country of birth of their parents. In cases where the parents have different countries of birth, the mother's country of birth is chosen.
Age
Age of participants according to the Standard for Age Classification.
Name: Preparatory education for adults
Subject: Education
Section for Education and Culture Statistics
National and county level
Annual
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 statistics aim to identify who the participants are, how the education is conducted, and how the participants who start the education fare.
The data is collected through mandatory reporting from municipalities and adult education centers. In the autumn of 2022, Statistics Norway (SSB) conducted a pilot reporting where adult education centers and municipalities reported all adult participants in primary and lower secondary school. This data collection resulted in the article "Hvem er deltakerne i grunnskoleopplæring for voksne?" which was published in August, 2023.
In the autumn of 2023, the first regular data collection was conducted, and the statistics Adults in primary and lower secondary school was first published in March 2024. As a consequence of changes in the Education Act in 2024, the statistics changed name to "preparatory education for adults" in 2026.
Users of the statistics are key authorities such as the Ministry of Education and Research (KD), the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion (AID), the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), and the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir).
Municipalities, educational institutions, researchers, students, and the media are also among the users.
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 can also be seen in connection with statistics such as Pupils in primary and lower secondary school, KOSTRA - Municipal Stat Reporting, Adult education, Introduction programme for immigrants, Norwegian for Adult Immigrants, and Lifelong learning.
Data on adults in primary school education are collected annually in the database Grunnskolens informasjonssystem (GSI) (udir.no). The data here is not collected at the individual level, as in the preparatory education for adults statistics.
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 are part of the national program for official statistics 2024-2027, in the main area of Education, the sub-area of Primary Schools, emphasizing that the statistics cover adult participants in primary schools.
Not relevant
The statistics for preparatory education for adults include information about each participant, reported by the municipality or adult education centre to which the participant is affiliated. The statistics cover all those registered as participants in the relevant period/school year. It provides information about the participant's sex, age, and country background. Information about modules, subjects, number of lessons and status of education are also collected.
The statistics are based on information which the municipality or adult education centre has reported to Statistics Norway, via Altinn. The reporting is mandatory.
Data Collection
Statistics on participants in preparatory education for adults are based on information reported by municipalities or adult education centres to Statistics Norway (SSB). The information is reported on a form prepared by SSB for these statistics.
Editing
Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.
When reported to SSB, the data are initially checked whether the form is filled out correctly and if there are any obvious errors. After the data is machine-readable, more detailed controls are conducted, in addition to controls against the previous survey and other available data. All Personal ID-numbers are checked for errors and subsequently pseudonymized.
Not relevant
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.
More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.
A pilot reporting was conducted in 2022. After the pilot reporting, an evaluation report was published in 2023. As a result of this evaluation, several changes were made from the data collection in 2022 to the data collection in 2023, documented in the evaluation report. The statistics changed name from Adults in primary and lower secondary school to Preparatory education for adults in 2026.
Some errors related to the collection and processing of data may occur. These can be code errors, revision errors, errors in data processing, etc. However, work has been done to minimize such errors.
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.