Overview

• INSM/IW Bildungsmonitor 2025 ranks Saxony first for the 20th straight year, followed by Bavaria and Hamburg, with Bremen last, based on 98 indicators largely from 2023 and 2024.
• Study authors report worsening outcomes in student performance, dropout rates and equity and argue that education funds are not being used efficiently.
• Hamburg scores highly on staffing ratios and internationalisation, Rheinland-Pfalz slips to 12th place, and Bremen is flagged for educational poverty and weak school quality.
• OECD’s Education at a Glance 2025 finds the share of 25–34-year-olds without upper-secondary or vocational credentials has risen to about 15 percent since 2019, with Germany showing the largest competence gaps by attainment and spending at 4.4 percent of GDP.
• Germany leads the OECD in the share of MINT graduates at roughly 35 percent and draws more international students, rising to 12.7 percent in 2023 and about 492,600 in the latest semester, prompting calls for targeted investment, early language diagnostics and stronger vocational pathways.