The percentage of adults in Cyprus that participated in formal and non-formal education and training in 2022 was close to the EU average (10.5% in Cyprus, 11.9% in the EU), while 96 out of 240 regions in the EU had rates equal or above to the EU average, according to data published by Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union. The distribution of adult participation rates tends to be very homogeneous within EU countries, reflecting national rather than regional education and training initiatives. Cyprus is considered a single region for statistical purposes at the NUTS2 level. In 2022, 96 out of 240 regions had participation rates equal to or above the EU average of 11.9%. This group included every region of Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden, as well as Estonia, Luxembourg and Malta (all single regions at this level of detail). At the top of the list, there were 24 regions where at least one-quarter of people aged 25 – 64 participated in education and training during the four weeks prior to the survey. In eight regions of Sweden, the participation rates were higher than in any other region in the EU, peaking at 38.1% in the capital region of Stockholm. This group also included all five regions of Denmark, and nine out of the 12 regions in the Netherlands, with the highest rates observed in Hovedstaden (the Danish capital region) and Utrecht (the Netherlands). Two other capital regions are on this list: Helsinki-Uusimaa in Finland and Bratislavský kraj in Slovakia. On the other hand, 29 regions observed participation rates for adult education and training below 5.0% in 2022. This group was concentrated in Bulgaria (all six regions), Greece (10 out of 12 regions; no data for Ionia Nisia) and Croatia (three out of fiyr regions), but also included five regions in Poland, three in Romania, as well as one in Belgium and another in Germany. Higher participation among women In 2022, 12.9% of women aged 25 – 64 in the EU participated in education and training during the four weeks prior to the survey. This was 2.1 percentage points (pp) higher than the corresponding share recorded for men (10.8 %). In Cyprus the difference between the sexes was small, with the participation of women being at 10.5% for 2022, compared with 10.4% among men. Higher participation rates for education and training for women were observed in 192 out of 233 NUTS 2 regions for which data are available. There were three regions where the participation rates between the sexes were the same, while the remaining 38 regions had higher participation rates for men. The higher rates of women participating in education and training were especially pronounced in regions characterised by very high overall participation rates. This was particularly the case for the 8 Swedish regions, where participation of women was 11.5 to 17.6 pp higher than that of men; the largest gap was observed in Mellersta Norrland (17.6 pp). Significantly higher rates were also recorded in the capital regions of two other Nordic EU countries: Helsinki-Uusimaa in Finland (9.8 pp gap) and Hovedstaden in Denmark (9.1 pp). The regions where adult participation rates in education and training were higher among men were concentrated across Germany (13 regions), Romania (five regions), Czechia (four regions), Italy (also four regions, principally in the north), Greece and Slovakia (both with three regions).
Source: Cyprus News Agency