About 56.2 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 in the country had completed higher education, maintaining the top spot for 17 consecutive years among the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), whose average stood at 41.9 percent.
The gap becomes even more pronounced among those aged 25 to 34, with the rate reaching 70.6 percent, the highest among OECD members and 11 other countries surveyed.
Canada came in second at 68.86 percent, followed by Ireland at 66.19 percent.
Although South Korea has been among the top-ranked countries in terms of the proportion of university graduates since 2008, many of them struggle to find jobs, suggesting that higher education increasingly fails to pay off and that the skills of advanced-degree holders are being wasted.
Meanwhile, educational spending per student amounted to $19,805 as of 2022, up 24.9 percent from the previous year, slightly above the OECD average of $15,023.
The figure includes all expenditures on education by the government and private sectors, excluding what parents spend on private crammers for their children.
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