Population: The focus of the Adult Education Survey (AES) is on the population of working age, i.e. 25-64 year-olds (Member States can widen this age band). Residents of collective households or institutions (such as old people’s homes, prisons etc.) are excluded.
Survey Period: The AES was launched between 2005 and 2007 in 27 Member States plus NO, TR and CH. The reference period for reporting participation in learning activities is 12 months, which could be either the last 12 months or the previous calendar year. In the first data collection round the sample size was about 150,000 individuals.
The survey is carried out every five years. After the first pilot exercise, the Adult Education Survey is run under a legal basis: Framework Regulation (EC) 452/2008, which makes it a compulsory European survey. Therefore the second AES data colletion, 2011 AES took place between 1 July 2011 and 30 June 2012.
Survey Method: Even though Eurostat recommends the implementation of a special survey on adults in education and learning, the National Statistical Institutes do also have the possibility to use a national vehicle survey for collecting AES data.
Topics: The AES provides information about the participation of adults to formal, non formal education and training as well as to informal training in Europe. Besides socio-demographic background information about the individual, survey contents are self-reported skills, participation in cultural and social activities, participation in learning and education and characteristics of learning activities.
Data Access: The current legal framework enables access to anonymised microdata available at Eurostat only for scientific purposes (Commission Regulations (EC) No 831/2002; (EC) No 1104/2006; (EC) No 1000/2007; Council Regulation 322/97), however the access is restricted to universities, research institutes, national statistical institutes, central banks inside the EU, as well as to the European Central Bank. Individuals cannot be granted direct data access. Access to the anonymized microdata of AES.
