This publication is an abridged version of a chapter from an analytical comparative report published in November, 2008. Based on the indices of education statistics, the report compares the Russian education system to that of 47 other countries. It uses materials published in yearly reports such as Education at a Glance, OECD, 2008; Education counts. Benchmarking Progress in 19 WEI Countries, UNESCO-UIS, 2007, and other data published by international organizations. The report discusses issues on the size of the Russian education system, the conditions under which it functions, and its funding. The present chapter deals with only one group of indices that describe the scale and structure of the population’s participation in education. An appendix contains tables with statistical indices for each country and aggregated values for country groups discussed in the main body of the paper. In the tables, countries are listed in order of decreasing GNP.