Scotland most highly educated country in Europe - study

Scotland is the most highly educated country in Europe and among the best-educated in the world, STV News reports, citing statisticians.

More than two-fifths of people aged 25-64 in Scotland are educated to tertiary level, outstripping Ireland, Luxembourg and Finland at the top of the table, a new regional compendium by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.

The rest of Europe, including the UK as a whole, falls below two-fifths, with Italy and Romania the lowest, according to the ONS.

Scotland is also up with Canada and Russia among the most well-educated countries in the world.

The compendium has been produced to inform the referendum campaign and contains figures on population, migration, economy and society.

At its launch in Edinburgh, ONS chief economic adviser Joe Grice said: "The purpose of the compendium is to place where we can comparable information about the four countries in the UK to bring together a resource to support public debate.

"Obviously in the context of Scotland it would be unrealistic to ignore the fact that there is a little referendum going on here which is relevant too."