Core Web Vitals in education: 272 domains measured
By Christian Schreiber · Updated
Educational institutions run very large websites with many editors and structures that grew over time. Visitors are looking for a specific document or deadline, often on a phone.
For Core Web Vitals, education ranks third of 18 industries, behind professional services, ahead of media and publishing. All medians stay within Google's thresholds, closest to the limit is LCP at 1704 ms against 2500 ms.
Core Web Vitals in education
63 percent of the 272 domains measured in this industry pass all three Core Web Vitals with real user data.
| Metric | Industry median | Middle half of the industry | Google threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP | 1704 ms | 1278 ms – 2464 ms | 2500 ms |
| INP | 103 ms | 78 ms – 144 ms | 200 ms |
| CLS | 0.02 | 0.00 – 0.08 | 0.10 |
Thresholds, sample sizes and anonymisation are explained under Core Web Vitals by industry.
Education against every measured domain
| Group | LCP | INP | CLS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 2083 ms | 122 ms | 0.09 |
| PerfDelta average (4189 domains tested) | 1961 ms | 144 ms | 0.04 |
Platforms in education
Share passing all three Core Web Vitals, by platform.
-
Drupal 71%
63 domains on this platform · median 1665 ms, middle half 1242 ms to 2191 ms
-
WordPress 70%
64 domains on this platform · median 1791 ms, middle half 1358 ms to 2255 ms
Three measurements from education
Faster quarter, median and slowest quarter, anonymised and rounded.
| Position | LCP | INP | CLS | Mobile score | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best quarter | 1250 ms | 150 ms | 0.02 | 60 | Drupal |
| Typical | 1700 ms | 100 ms | 0.02 | 60 | – |
| Slowest quarter | 2450 ms | 100 ms | 0.00 | 50 | – |
What usually slows education down
Heavy content management installations with many extensions are common, each one bringing its own CSS and JavaScript. Event calendars that load in full on every page view add to it. Fewer active extensions and a server-rendered calendar fragment are the most direct way forward.
Which education pages to test first
Prospective students land on programme pages, current students on timetables, deadlines and the learning platform login. Test a programme page and the page with application deadlines. Learning platforms and campus portals often run on their own subdomains, which count as separate origins and need their own test.
Which metric is at risk in education
LCP is held back by campus photography in sliders and by heavy CMS templates. INP suffers on pages with course search, event calendars and filterable staff directories. Layout shifts appear when news tickers, closure alerts or cookie notices are inserted above the content.
Step-by-step fixes: Website Speed Optimization.
How does your site compare in education?
Run a free page speed test and compare your values with the education median.
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