The article contains data on continuous education of the population in Russia and European countries, as well as information on the particular techniques of measuring the basic indicators. Indicators for Russia have been formed on a cross-cut of basic socio-demographic groups present on the Eurostat site. The sources of data are the latest joint surveys conducted jointly by the Institute of Statistic Rsearch and Knoledge Economy of HSE, The «Public Opinion» foundation, and The Yury Levada Analytic Center, as well as from the EU Labour Force Survey.