based on harmonised year old students achievement data collected at the individual level the empirical analysis shows that while nordic european countries exhibit relatively low levels of inequality continental europe is characterised by high levels of inequality in particular of schooling segregation along socioeconomic lines while anglosaxon countries occupy a somewhat intermediate position despite the difficulty of properly identifying causal relationship crosscountry regression analysis provides insights on the potential for policies to explain observed differences in equity in education policies allowing increasing social mix are associated with lower school socioeconomic segregation without affecting overall performance