It depends what types of schools you include. The "Diplom" and "Magister" closely resembles the US master's degree, so their proliferation is lower when compari

It depends what types of schools you include. The "Diplom" and "Magister" closely resembles the US master's degree, so their proliferation is lower when comparing to _all_ degrees in other countries. However it has been replaced by BA/BS and MA/MS between 2005 and 2010, so you can expect more BAs to enter the labor market today. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abitur http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abitur it states that 43% of an age group get the Abitur, and most of them attend university according to http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/pdf/PresseUndAktuelles/2011/eag_2011_Lange_PM.pdf http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/pdf/PresseUndAktuelles/2011/eag.... That document also states that some 28% of the population get a university (undergratuate/graduate) degree today. On the other hand, more people do apprenticeships in Germany than in other countries (without nessaraily having an Abitur degree), and those apprenticeships are accompanied by classes and an associate degree which can be extended to a "meister" of some sort. Some studies are regarded as apprenticeship that would be taught at colleges in other countries (e.g. patient care). If you add those degrees they make up another 15% of an age group. So in total that's something like 43% which I think would be comparable to US numbers.