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SCOTLAND is the most highly educated country in Europe, according to official figures.

More than two-fifths of the nation’s 25 to 64-year-olds have a college or university qualification.

That puts Scots ahead of Ireland, Luxembourg and Finland to top the table, the Office for National Statistics said.

Scotland is up with Canada and Russia among the world’s best-educated countries.

The figures are in a compendium put together for the independence referendum debate.

ONS chief economic adviser Joe Grice said: “It places, where we can, comparable information about the four countries in the UK to bring together a resource to support public debate.”

The figures reveal the country has a skilled workforce – but that 10.3 per cent of working age people have no qualifications. In Northern Ireland, the figure is 17.2 per cent. In Wales it is 10.6 per cent and it’s 9.1 per cent in England.

The study found 83 per cent of Scots declare their nationality as Scottish. Only 70 per cent in England call themselves English.

Scotland fell short of its target of attracting 24,000 extra immigrants to support pensions in 2012, with only 14,000 immigrants arriving.The unemployment rate was the UK’s lowest at 6.4 per cent and the public sector employment the second lowest at 22.1 per cent.

The study found that – excluding North Sea oil – Scotland made up 7.8 per cent of the UK economy from 8.3 per cent of the population.

England put in 86.5 per cent from 84 per cent of the people. But most of that came from London.