Search results
60%. 70%. 80%. 90%. 100%. Click on a country for details. Literacy Rate by Country 2024. Literacy—the ability to read and write—is arguably the single most important factor in determining a person's career arc. For those who can read and write, the range of possible vocations is vast—even highly skilled, high-paying careers are within reach.
- U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024
California. 28.4%. New Mexico. 29.1%. U.S. Literacy Rates by...
- Education Rankings by Country 2024
38%. Somalia. 41%. Guinea. 45%. Benin. 47%. Education...
- U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024
California. 28.4%. New Mexico. 29.1%. U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024. U.S. Literacy Rates by State 2024. The literacy rate is the total number of literate persons (people able to both read and write) in a given age group, expressed as the percentage of that age group. The adult literacy rate measures literacy among persons age 15 and older.
- Global Literacy Today
- Historical Change in Literacy
- Literacy Around The World Today
- Numeracy
Of the world population older than 15 years, the majority are literate. This interactive map shows how literacy rates vary around the world. In many countries, more than 95% have basic literacy skills. Literacy skills of the majority of the population are a modern achievement as we show below. Globally, however, large inequalities remain, notably b...
Global literacy has grown substantially in the last two centuries
While the earliest forms of written communication date back to about 3,500-3,000 BCE, for centuries literacy remained a very restricted technology closely associated with the exercise of power. It was only during the Middle Ages that book production started growing, and literacy among the general population slowly started becoming important in the Western World.1 While the ambition of universal literacy in Europe was a fundamental reform born from the Enlightenment, it took centuries for it t...
When did literacy start increasing in Europe?
The following visualization shows the spread of literacy in Europe since the 15th century, based on estimates from Buringh and Van Zanden (2009).2 As can be seen, the rising levels of education in Europe foreshadowed the emergence of modern societies. Particularly fast improvements in literacy took place across Northwest Europe in the period 1600-1800. As we discuss below, widespread literacy is considered a legacy of the Age of Enlightenment.
The ambition of universal literacy in Europe was a reform born of the Enlightenment
The next chart shows historical estimates of literacy in England over the last five centuries. The historical estimates are based on the percentage of men and women who could sign documents, a very basic definition of literacy that is often used in historical research on education.3 The first observations refer to men and women in the diocese of Norwich, which lies to the Northeast of London. Here, the majority of men (61%) were unable to write their names in the late 16th century; for women,...
Literacy by generation
To assess the extent to which progress can be expected in the years to come, it is convenient to break down literacy estimates by age groups. The following map, using data from UNESCO, shows such estimates for most countries in the world. As can be seen, in the majority of nations, there is a large difference in literacy rates across generations. These large differences across generations point to a global trend: the high literacy rate among the youth indicates that as time passes, the litera...
Literacy rates by sex
The visualization shows the literacy for rates for young men and women. In countries above the diagonal dashed line, literacy rates are higher for young men than for young women; this is the case for many poorer countries. This chartshows the literacy rate by sex over time. This visualizationshows the ratio of the literacy rate between young women and men around the world.
Numeracy skills over the long run
Numeracy is the ability to understand and work with numbers. The visualization shows how this ability became more common in populations around the world based on a very basic definition of numeracy, the ability to state one's own age correctly.
Numeracy skills today
Compared to the data on literacy we have less information on numeracy skills in the world today. Some information comes from PIAAC, the OECD's survey of the skills of adults. The scatter plot shows how adults in OECD countries scored in the literacy and numeracy dimension. We see that the two aspects are closely correlated; those countries that have high literacy also have high numeracy. PIAAC is only available for the recent past, but it can still give us some insights into how numeracy skil...
38%. Somalia. 41%. Guinea. 45%. Benin. 47%. Education rankings are sourced from both the annual UN News Best Countries report and the nonprofit organization World Top 20. CSV JSON.
Data instruments used to estimate literacy. Estimated historical literacy rates. Female youth literacy rate. Gender parity in youth literacy rates. Historical literacy in England, by sex. Literacy by years of schooling, United States. Literacy rate. Literacy rate in adult men. Literacy rate in adult women.
Hundreds of millions of children worldwide do not go to school. While most children worldwide get the opportunity to go to school, hundreds of millions still don’t. In the chart, we see the number of children who aren’t in school across primary and secondary education. This number was around 260 million in 2019.
People also ask
What percentage of the world population is literate?
What is the global literacy rate?
Which countries have 100% literacy rates?
What are literacy rates?
What is the adult literacy rate?
Why do literacy rates vary across generations?
European Union. High income. Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) from The World Bank: Data.
