Attainment of 18-year-olds

This measure includes all New Zealand secondary students who attended a New Zealand school after their 15th birthday. The measure reports on the number of 18-year-olds who have attained a qualification at Level 2 or above by age 18, it includes attainment of NCEA Level 2 or higher and attainment of other Level 2 qualifications from tertiary institutions and attainment from alternative assessments such as Cambridge International Assessment, and International Baccalaureate.

Last Updated: September 2023

Overview of 18-year-old attainment

In 2022, eighty-two percent of all 18-year-olds attained the equivalent of NCEA Level 2 or above. Of those who turned 18 in 2022, 78.3% of them attained at least NCEA Level 2 or above in school, and 4.1% of them attained at least NCEA Level 2 or above post-school in a tertiary or vocational setting.

Figure 1: Most 18-year-olds with NCEA Level 2 or above attained their qualification in school

18-Year-olds Figure 1

This index page provides data on the number of 18-year-olds with a Level 2 Qualification or above from 2012 to 2022.

Cohort numbers are identified through the Ministry's ENROL database and based on New Zealand Domestic Students who turned 18 within a calendar year. Attainment details are sourced from the Ministry of Education School Leaver dataset, New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and Tertiary Single Data Returns (SDRs).

Indicator

A Level 2 qualification gives people opportunities to pursue further education and employment, contributing to better health outcomes and a better quality of life. The attainment of an upper secondary school qualification is linked to labour force status and incomes. For a summary of the attainment of NCEA level 2 or equivalent by 18-year-olds please read the indicator:

Time Series Data

This spreadsheet provides numbers and percentages of 18-year-olds with NCEA Level 2 or above across time in a simple, easy to use format.

Pivot Table

This pivot table allows you to create your tables by any combination of variables.  It has the option of displaying number of 18-Year-olds by Student Gender, Ethnicity, Leaving Age, the pathway through which they first attained a Level 2 Qualification or above, and by school type variables (such as decile or affiliation) and regional type variables.

Please note: use of this spreadsheet requires MS Excel version 2007 or later.

Machine Readable Data

The following data have been provided in a format (csv) that can easily be processed by a computer. It contains the same data that are in the above pivot table.

18-Year-Old Attainment Technical Notes

The Measure

Indicator Definition: 18-year-olds with NCEA Level 2 or above

Percentage of 18-year-olds with NCEA Level 2 or above

Numerator:
The total number of 18-year-olds who attained:

  • National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) at Level 2 or 3; or
  • Any qualification on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) at level 2 or higher or;
  • NZ Scholarship; or
  • Any schooling qualification not on the NZQF but recognised to be equivalent to a NZQF level 2 or higher qualification. These qualifications are often collectively referred to as non-NZQF qualifications, and in the schooling sector include:
    • Cambridge International Exams;
    • International Baccalaureate;
    • Accelerated Christian Education;
  • 30 credits at level 3 or higher
  • Any qualification at Level 2 or higher from the tertiary Single Data Return

as at the end of the calendar year.

The highest NCEA/NZQF and non-NZQF attainment is obtained from Ministry of Education: School Leaver Data and New Zealand Qualification Authority (at the end of the calendar year that learners turned 18).

The highest attainment in provider-based education is obtained from the Single Data Return.

Denominator:
The total number of 18-year-olds in a given year that had attended school in New Zealand.
(Data Source: Ministry of Education: ENROL)

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for 18-year-olds

Eighteen-year-olds who attended New Zealand schools have been defined as a cohort born in a specific year. For example, those born in 2004 are the 2022 18-year-olds included. Students counted in the 18-year-old cohort are:

  • Domestic students who were born in the same calendar year and were aged 18 at the beginning of the reporting year.
  • Enrolled in ENROL at least once when they were aged between 15 and 18.
  • Students who were: enrolled with a New Zealand school, home schooled, in alternative education, attending an attached unit or enrolled in a secondary-tertiary pathway course.

This excludes:

  • Exchange and International fee-paying students
  • Deceased students

School Data Dimension Notes

The dimensions are:

Year:

The calendar year in which students turned 18 - for example, the '2022' cohort are all students identified in ENROL who turned 18 in 2022 and were born in 2004. Information is not available for learners who were aged 18 prior to 2011.

Student Gender:

The gender of the students as recorded in ENROL.

Student Ethnicity:

The ethnic group the student belongs to, for example, Māori, Asian. The ethnic group data is presented at level 1 and total response. That is, leavers are counted for each level 1 ethnic group they have indicated they belong to. While a student may be represented in more than one ethnic group, they are only counted once in the ethnic group "Total".

Leaving Age:

The age (in years) on the last day of attendance at a New Zealand school before student's entry in tertiary study or the workplace. Note students who are enrolled beyond the end of the reporting year are included with those who left school when they were 18.

School Type:

The type of the school the student was attending at 18-years-old, or the last school the student attended before entry in tertiary study or the workplace, for example Composite (Year 1-15).

School Authority:

The ownership of the school the student was attending at 18-years-old, or the last school the student attended before entry in tertiary study or the workplace, for example State, State-Integrated and Private.

Decile:

The decile assigned to the school the student was attending at 18-years-old, or the last school the student attended before entry in tertiary study or the workplace.  Decile 1 schools draw the greatest proportion of their students from low socio-economic areas. Schools are assigned a socio-economic score based on five census derived socio-economic factors. The 10 percent of schools with the lowest scores are considered decile 1 schools; the next 10 percent of schools are considered decile 2 schools, etc.

Education Area:

The Education Region of the school the student was attending at 18-years-old, or the last school student attended before entry into tertiary study or the workplace. These ten administrative regions are created by the Ministry of Education and are aligned with the Ministry’s ten regional offices. This may not correspond to where the qualifications were gained or the location of the student in year of cohort.

Regional Council:

The Regional Council of the school the student was attending at 18-years-old, or the last school the student attended before entry into tertiary study or the workplace.  Regional council boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand. This may not correspond to where the qualifications were gained or the location of the student in year of cohort.

Territorial Authority:

The territorial authority area the school of the student is located in. Territorial authority boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand. Please note that Auckland Territorial Authority is further broken down into local board. For more information on Auckland city local boards visit the Auckland Council website. Not Applicable includes students whose school campus covers more than one region, and students with no regional information available. The correspondence school is defined as a separate boundary.