Across the EU there has been a steady increase in the number of young adults who tertiary education.
The number jumped from 24% in 2002 to 37% in 2013.
Portugal was among the EU nations which saw a healthy increase. By 2013, just over 29% of people aged between 30 and 34 finished tertiary education. That was up from 13% just 11 years earlier.
Tertiary education includes universities as well as technical training institutes, nursing schools, and research laboratories.
Countries which had the greatest numbers of people finishing tertiary education include Ireland (number one with 53%), Luxembourg, Lithuania, Sweden, Cyprus and the UK (48%).
The rate in Italy was the lowest (22.4%) along with Romania, Croatia and Malta.
At the same time, the number of young people between 18 and 24 leaving education and training fell across the EU, dropping from 17% in 2002 to 12% last year.
In Portugal, the number dropped by half, reducing to 19% last year. This was, however, still one of the highest rates of early school leavers within all 28 countries. Only Spain (23.5%) and Malta (21%) saw more students leave education early.
More people in the EU stayed in education or training by 2013 than had been the case in 2003, with the only exceptions of Poland and Slovakia. Surprisingly perhaps, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Poland saw the highest proportions of young people still in education.
