Keep this baseline in mind: on average worldwide, the private return to one more year of education (the part that lands on your own income) is about 9% a year
Grade ABig benefitMoneyFreeLittle timeNo willpower
On a worldwide average, one more year of school raises personal income by about 9% a year; the return for women has stayed higher than for men. This figure is about formal schooling; you cannot apply it directly to a short course. Use it as a yardstick: if a course costs you 30000 yuan (3万) and half a year, ask whether the income change it brings matches one more year of school.
- Cost
- No money. Memorize this figure and use it as a yardstick for any "learn something" plan.
- Benefit
- A review covering 1950 to 2014, 139 countries, and 1120 estimates found: "the global average private return to one more year of education is 9% a year." Private return is the part that lands on the person's own income: one more year of school raises income by about 9% on average. The private return to higher education is rising. The social return to education (the part that lands on society as a whole rather than on the person) remains high. Women's average return to education stays higher than men's
- Notes
- This is a global average for "one more year of school." It is not the return to "signing up for a course," and it is not a China-specific figure. It is only a scale reference. Its use is to give every training plan a yardstick. If a course costs you 30000 yuan (3万) and six months, ask whether it can bring an income change on the scale of one year of formal education. Also note that the global average hides large differences by subject and by country
Sources · 2
- Psacharopoulos G, Patrinos HA (2018). Returns to investment in education: a decennial review of the global literature. Education Economics, 26(5), 445-458. doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2018.1484426
- 世界银行政策研究工作论文 8402. doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8402