Years of Schooling in Chad: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

Behind every statistic of human development is a measure of time spent learning to read, write, and understand the world. At MYRIAD, we examine the quantitative reality of human lives, looking past broad abstractions to see what formal education actually looks like for the average adult across generations. In the 2020s, years of schooling in Chad stands at 6 years, ranking #126 of 157 countries. This metric traces the cumulative time spent in classrooms, framing the intellectual landscape of daily existence and the foundational knowledge passed down through decades.

The historical arc of this education data spans three centuries of slow, incremental change. In the 1800s estimate, the average stood at 0.1 years, slowly rising through the 1810s estimate at 0.14, the 1820s estimate at 0.18, the 1830s estimate at 0.22, the 1840s estimate at 0.26, the 1850s estimate at 0.3, the 1860s estimate at 0.34, the 1870s estimate at 0.38, the 1880s estimate at 0.42, and the 1890s estimate at 0.46. By 1900 it was 0.5 years, matching the 1900s estimate. Growth continued through the 1910s estimate at 0.64, the 1920s estimate at 0.78, the 1930s estimate at 0.92, the 1940s estimate at 1.06, the 1950s at 1.2, the 1960s at 1.63, the 1970s at 2.07, the 1980s at 2.5, the 1990s at 3.25, the 2000s at 4, and the 2010s at 5.

For someone growing up in these shifting eras, the expected duration of formal study defines the boundaries of access to information and modern economic participation. Looking forward, projections trace a continued upward trajectory through the 2030s projection at 6.3, the 2040s projection at 6.6, the 2050s projection at 6.9, the 2060s projection at 7.2, the 2070s projection at 7.5, the 2080s projection at 7.8, the 2090s projection at 8.1, and the 2100s projection at 8.4 years. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born? →