# Degree-level qualifications

The share of residents aged 16 and over whose highest qualification is at level 4 or above: a degree, foundation degree, HNC, HND, NVQ level 4 or a professional qualification.

## Facts

- Published by: Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Level of detail: Output area
- Updates: Every 10 years
- History: Since 2021
- Licence: Open Government Licence 3.0
- Levels: Nation, Region, Council, Constituency, Postcode area, Postcode district, Town, Ward, Middle area, Neighbourhood, Output area

## Periods

| Level | First | Latest | Periods |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nation | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Region | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Council | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Constituency | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Postcode area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Postcode district | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Town | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Ward | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Middle area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Neighbourhood | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |
| Output area | 2021 | 2021 | 1 |

## Coverage

| Nation | Areas | With a figure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| England | 178605 | 178605 |
| Wales | 10275 | 10275 |
| Scotland | 46363 | 0 |

Scotland's census groups qualifications differently (HNCs and HNDs sit below its degree level), so its figures are not shown with the rest of the UK.

## Gaps

- Scotland's census groups qualifications differently (HNCs and HNDs sit below its degree level), so its figures are not shown with the rest of the UK: 1000 (Output area in Dyce - 07, Output area in Dyce - 07, Output area in Denmore - 05, Output area in Dyce - 07, Output area in Oldmachar West - 01, Output area in Dyce - 07)

## Caveats

- Level 4 and above covers degrees, higher degrees, foundation degrees, HNCs, HNDs, NVQ level 4 and 5, and professional qualifications such as teaching, nursing and accountancy.
- Qualifications gained abroad are counted at the nearest equivalent level, or as other qualifications if the level is unknown.
- Percentages worked out by Open Index from the published counts.
- England, Wales and Northern Ireland held their census on 21 March 2021.
- Each census office makes small random changes to counts to protect privacy, so the smallest areas can be a few people out, and small areas do not add up exactly to larger ones.
- Wards and constituencies are worked out by Open Index by adding up the census areas that best fit them, so they are close but not exact. Councils whose boundaries changed after the census are added up from output areas.
- Northern Ireland has no 2021 output areas. Its smallest census areas are Data Zones, so the map holds at that level there.

## Example: Hackney

52.4% of residents aged 16 and over in Hackney had a degree-level qualification at the census.
In London the figure is 46.7%.

https://openindex.co.uk/hackney

## Sources

### Census 2021, England and Wales

- Publisher: Office for National Statistics
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Census 2021 topic summaries (Nomis bulk)
- Published: 19 January 2023
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: one-off
- Credit: Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_bulk

### Census 2021, Northern Ireland

- Publisher: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Census 2021 Flexible Table Builder extract, October 2026
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: one-off
- Credit: Source: NISRA, Census 2021. Website: www.nisra.gov.uk. Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://build.nisra.gov.uk/en/

## Use it

- [The map](https://openindex.co.uk/map/degree-level-qualifications)
- [Ranking](https://openindex.co.uk/rankings/degree-level-qualifications/uk)
- Download (Output area): https://data.openindex.co.uk/s/2026.10.8/downloads/layers/degree-level-qualifications/output_area.csv
- API: https://openindex.co.uk/v1/layers/degree-level-qualifications

## How to cite

Source: Open Index, openindex.co.uk. Link to this page, https://openindex.co.uk/sources/degree-level-qualifications.

Open Index's own text and the figures it works out are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Source data keeps its publishers' licences, named with each figure. Give each figure's period and source with it.

- Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0.
- Source: NISRA, Census 2021. Website: www.nisra.gov.uk. Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Snapshot 2026.10.8, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23508850. The HTML page: https://openindex.co.uk/sources/degree-level-qualifications