In the past two decades, education in South Africa has slowly been changing. Adults are reaching higher levels of education than ever before. This is mostly good news, given the clear correlation between education level and finding a job.

In 2002, 24.4% of South Africans over the age of 20 had only completed a grade 7 or below, while 11.4% had no formal education at all. Very few people had post-school qualifications (9.2%). However, those trends have gradually been changing with more people gaining access to education and completing higher levels of study. In 2025, only 2.6% of people had no formal education, and 9.7% had a grade 7 or below.

Read the full feature here.