International Standard Classification of Education

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is classification structure for organizing information on education and training maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is part of the international family of economic and social classifications of the United Nations.

The ISCED was designed in the early 1970s to serve ‘as an instrument suitable for assembling, compiling and presenting statistics of education both within individual countries and internationally’. It was approved by the International Conference on Education (Geneva, 1975), and was subsequently endorsed by UNESCO’s General Conference.

The present classification, known as ISCED-1997, was approved by the UNESCO General Conference at its 29th session in November 1997 as part of efforts to increase the international comparability of education statistics. It covers primarily two cross-classification variables: levels and fields of education. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics has proposed a revisions to ISCED (ISCED-2011), which has been approved by UNESCO’s General Conference in November 2011 and which will replace ISCED-1997 in international data collections in the next years.

Related materials from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training provide further information and statistical guidance for classification of sub-fields of education as a companion to ISCED.

ISCED defined levels of education

Level	Description	Principal characteristics
0	Pre-primary education	initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type environment
1	Primary education or first stage of basic education	normally starting between the ages of 5 and 7, designed to give a sound basic education in reading, writing and mathematics along with an elementary understanding of other subjects
2	Lower secondary or second stage of basic education	designed to complete basic education, usually on a more subject-oriented pattern
3	(Upper) secondary education	more specialized education typically beginning at age 15 or 16 years and/or the end of compulsory education
4	Post-secondary non-tertiary education	captures programmes that straddle the boundary between upper- and post-secondary education from an international point of view, e.g. pre-university courses or short vocational programmes
5	First stage of tertiary education	tertiary programmes having an advanced educational content, cross-classified by field (see below)
6	Second stage of tertiary education	tertiary programmes leading to the award of an advanced research qualification, e.g. Ph.D., cross-classified by field (see below)

ISCED defined fields of education

• 0 General Programmes
  • 01 Basic programmes
  • 08 Literacy and numeracy
  • 09 Personal development

• 1 Education
  • 14 Teacher training and education science

• 2 Humanities and Arts
  • 21 Arts
  • 22 Humanities

• 3 Social sciences, business and law
  • 31 Social and behavioural science
  • 32 Journalism and information
  • 34 Business and administration
  • 38 Law

• 4 Science
  • 42 Life sciences
  • 44 Physical sciences
  • 46 Mathematics and statistics
  • 48 Computing

• 5 Engineering, manufacturing and construction
  • 52 Engineering and engineering trades
  • 54 Manufacturing and processing
  • 58 Architecture and building

• 6 Agriculture
  • 62 Agriculture, forestry and fishery
  • 64 Veterinary

• 7 Health and welfare
  • 72 Health
  • 76 Social services

• 8 Services
  • 81 Personal services
  • 84 Transport services
  • 85 Environmental protection
  • 86 Security services

See also

• UNESCO nomenclature for fields of science and technology

External links

• ISCED-1997 the complete classification in six languages
• Roadmap to compare education systems examples how ISCED is applied to national education systems