• Choose “United Kingdom” to see maps of modern administrative units that have extended time series
• Or select a component nation for maps using original historical units
• Then select a date from the grid to map that rate at that date for that administrative unit type

RATE	Government Region	District/Unitary Authority	Modern (2024) Ward
Percentage of persons with university degrees or equivalent	1951 - 2011 Dates 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011	1951 - 2021 Dates 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2021	1971 - 2021 Dates 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 2021
Percentage Unqualified	1951 - 2011 Dates 1951 1961 2001 2011	1951 - 2021 Dates 1951 1961 2001 2011 2021	2001 - 2021 Dates 2001 2011 2021

Since 1951, the census has gathered information on what point in the education system individuals reached: did they leave school as soon as was legal, without qualifications? did they get GCSEs? and did they go to university and get a degree? In general, this information covers everyone of working age, so it has to be seen as an 'average' of decisions to stay on at school or leave taken during the forty or fifty years prior to the census.

Unfortunately, the variation in what was reported by different censuses means none of our measures can be presented for every census, and also that the precise definitions of measures vary from census to census, so precise rates cannot generally be compared over time, only relative positions.

These selections from historical census reports are on the theme of Learning & Language.