Many theories of economic growth stress the role of human capital in t
he form of education, but empirical studies have been hampered by inad
equate data. We describe a data set on educational attainment for 129
countries over five-year periods from 1960 to 1985. Census/survey figu
res fill over 40% of the cells, and the remainder are estimated from s
chool-enrollment data by a perpetual-inventory method. The data refer
to male and female attainment of the adult population at four levels:
no schooling, primary, secondary, and higher. We also provide a rough
breakdown into incomplete and complete attainment at the three levels
of schooling.