Many theories of economic growth stress the role of human capital in the form of education, but empirical studies have been hampered by inadequate data. The authors describe a data set on educational attainment for 120 countries over five- year periods from 1960 to 1985. Census and survey figures fill over 40% of the cells, and the remainder are estimated from school-enrollment data by a perpetual- inventory method. The data refer to male and female attainment of the adult population at four levels: no schooling, primary, secondary, and higher. They also provide a rough breakdown into incomplete and complete attainment at the three levels of schooling.