The number of Seoul citizens holding master’s or doctoral degrees has tripled over the past 20 years, a study found Sunday.

There were 39,538 master’s and 5,043 doctoral graduates last year, almost triple the 14,049 in 1990, according to the study conducted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Statistics Korea.

Women with higher education showed a five-fold increase in two decades, with the number surging to 19,321 last year from 3,668 in 1990.

In 2010, the number of female masters was 17,527, slightly more than 16,968 of men, while that of male doctors was 3,249, almost double the 1,794 of women.

The survey, which was conducted on 4,600 people residing in Seoul, also found that the number of students in kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school decreased to the lowest in 38 years.

The student number was nearly 1.35 million last year, about 57 percent of 2.36 million 20 years ago.

Elementary schools saw the largest decline in student numbers, with the figure cut in half to 566,149 during the same period.

However, elementary schools and teachers increased 26.8 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively, over the past 20 years.

In 2010, the number of students per teacher was 19.3 percent, the lowest-ever compared to 45 in 1990.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)