According to the Conference of Adult Education Austria (KEBÖ), continuing education is "self-responsible education on the basis of an organized, free offer beyond initial educational". In addition to adults, this definition includes children and young people and encompasses educational activities with different purposes (occupation, hobby, health, etc.). KEBÖ, founded in 1972, is the working platform of the Austrian adult education associations recognized in the Adult Education Promotion Act of 1973. The federal associations represented there are autonomous, not-for-profit and carry out continuous and planned educational work throughout Austria.
The member associations of KEBÖ compile the statistics annually in their own sphere of activity and partly publish them within the framework of a joint KEBÖ statistics (see KnowledgeBase AdultEducation). The content primarily concerns events, participation as well as the number of staff of the associations.