The adult Fijian population includes all those aged 15 years and over.
- In 2001, 80 percent of Fijian adults held a formal educational qualification – the highest level among Pacific ethnic groups. The equivalent figure for the Pacific population was 64 percent.
- Slightly more than half of the adult Fijian population listed a school qualification as their highest qualification in 2001, while a further 29 percent held a post-school qualification. By contrast, 32 percent of the New Zealand adult population held a post-school qualification in 2001.
- Young Fijian adults are more likely to hold a post-school qualification than their older counterparts, as figure 5.1 illustrates. In 2001, 33 percent of Fijian people aged 20–24 years and 40 percent of those aged 25–34 years held a post-school qualification. By comparison, 15 percent of those aged 65 years and over held a post-school qualification.
- Similar proportions of Fijian females and males had a school qualification as their highest qualification (51 percent and 50 percent respectively), with the same pattern repeated for post-school qualifications (30 percent and 29 percent respectively).
- Fijian people born overseas (51 percent) were slightly more likely than their New Zealand-born counterparts (49 percent) to have a school qualification as their highest qualification. Post-school qualifications were held by 29 percent of overseas-born Fijian people and 30 percent of Fijians born in New Zealand.
- Similar levels of the New Zealand-born Fijian population (21 percent) and the overseas-born Fijian population (20 percent) were without formal qualifications in 2001.
- Young Fijian adults are less likely to be without a formal qualification than their older counterparts. In 2001, 12 percent of Fijians aged 20–24 years and 11 percent of those aged 25–34 years were without any formal qualifications, compared with 14 percent of those aged 35–44 years and 30 percent of those aged 45–64 years.