Malta has the third lowest proportion of people aged between 30 and 34 with tertiary education in the EU.
Barely one in every four Maltese in that age bracket has a tertiary education, Eurostat figures show. The figure stands at 27.8 per cent. Only Romania (25.6 per cent) and Italy (25.3 per cent) do worse than Malta.
Lithuania sits at the other end of the spectrum at 57.6 per cent followed by Cyprus (54.6 per cent), Ireland and Luxembourg (both 52.3 per cent).
Twelve member states - Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden - have already met or exceeded their 2020 national target for this indicator.
The figures show that the share of persons in this age bracket in the EU who have completed tertiary education has constantly increased, from 23.6 per cent in 2002, when the series started, to 38.7 per cent last year.
This pattern was even more significant for women (from 24.5 per cent in 2002 to 43.4 per cent in 2015, meaning above the overall Europe 2020 target) than for men (from 22.6 per cent to 34 per cent meaning still below the overall Europe 2020 target).
The Europe 2020 strategy’s target is that at least 40 per cent of 30-34-year-olds in the EU should have completed tertiary education by 2020.
The share of early school leavers - those aged 18-24 with at most lower secondary education and who were not in further education or training - steadily decreased from 17 per cent in 2002 to 11 per cent in 2015.
Young women (9.5 per cent in 2015) were less affected than young men (12.4 per cent) The Europe 2020 target was to reduce the rates of early school leavers in the EU to below 10 per cent by 2020.
The lowest proportions of 'early school leavers' last year were observed in Croatia (2.8 per cent), Slovenia (five per cent), Cyprus and Poland (both 5.3 per cent) and Lithuania (5.5 per cent), while the highest shares were recorded in Spain (20 per cent), Malta (19.8 per cent) and Romania (19.1 per cent).
Thirteen member states - Denmark, Ireland, Greece, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden - have already fulfilled their 2020 national target for this indicator.
The share of early school leavers last year was lower for women than men in almost all member states.