The share of persons aged between 30 and 34 in the EU who have completed tertiary education has been constantly increasing.
In 2002, 24% accomplished it and this grew to 38% by 2014.
A greater percentage of women completed this education than men. This was the case in every EU nation except Germany.
The EU strategy is to see 40% of men and women in this age bracket achieve such education by 2020 while reducing the number of school leavers to 10%.
Some countries have set goals of percentages higher than 40%. Twelve EU countries have already reached or exceeded their goal.
In Portugal, tertiary education was completed by 32%. It has set itself the goal of 40%.
But its 32% was on par with both Germany and Bulgaria. It lagged behind the Ireland (52%), UK (48%), Spain (43%) and Greece (38%).
Nevertheless, Portugal was only six positions away from the lowest achievers.
What it did particularly achieve was to cut in half the number of people leaving school early. This was the case for 38.5% of students in 2006 but that percentage dropped dramatically to 17% last year.
Still its rate of school leavers is the fourth highest in the EU, following Spain, Malta and Romania.
The poorest score of all was in Italy where a meagre 24% completed tertiary studies.
