Across OECD countries, governments are seeking policies to make education more effective while searching for additional resources to meet the increasing demand for education.

The 2010 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance. It provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

The indicators show who participates in education, how much is spent on it and how education systems operate. They also illustrate a wide range of educational outcomes, comparing, for example, student performance in key subject areas and the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment.

New material in this edition includes:

• indicators on school choice and the parent voice in education;
• an indicator on the long-term economic impact of improved learning outcomes;
• an indicator benchmarking labour costs by educational levels across OECD countries;
• a review of trends in educational attainment;
• an update on the human and financial resources invested in education;
• an indicator comparing salaries of teachers to earnings of workers with tertiary education;
• a review of adult participation in education and training.

The ExcelTM spreadsheets used to create the tables and charts in this book are available via the StatLinks printed below them. The tables and charts, as well as the complete OECD Online Education Database, are freely available via the OECD Education website at www.oecd.org/edu/eag2010.