In the past five decades, the global literacy rate among adults has grown from 67 percent in 1976 to 87.36 percent in 2023. In 1976, males had a literacy rate of 76 percent, compared to a rate of 58 percent among females. This difference of over 17 percent in 1976 has fallen to just seven percent in 2020. Although gaps in literacy rates have fallen across all regions in recent decades, significant disparities remain across much of South Asia and Africa, while the difference is below one percent in Europe and the Americas. Reasons for these differences are rooted in economic and cultural differences across the globe. In poorer societies, families with limited means are often more likely to invest in their sons' education, while their daughters take up a more domestic role. Varieties do exist on national levels, however, and female literacy levels can sometimes exceed the male rate even in impoverished nations, such as Lesotho (where the difference was over 17 percent in 2014); nonetheless, these are exceptions to the norm.

There is a gender gap in the global literacy rate. Although literacy rates have generally increased worldwide for both men and women, men are on average more literate than women. As of 2024, about 90.91 percent of men and a little less than 88.8 percent of women worldwide were literate. Adult literacy rate is defined as the percentage of people aged 15 years and above who can both read and write with understanding a short, simple statement about their everyday life. Youth literacy rate Not only does the literacy gender gap concern adults, it also exists among the world’s younger generations aged 15 to 24. Despite an overall increase in literacy, young men are still more literate than young women. In fact, the global youth literacy rate as gender parity index was 0.98 as of 2023, indicating that young women are not yet as literate as young men. Gender pay gap Gender gaps occur in many different spheres of global society. One such issue concerns salary gender gaps in professional life. Regarding the controlled gender pay gap, which measures the median salary for men and women with the same job and qualifications, women still earned less than men as of 2024. The difference was even bigger when measuring the median salary for all men and women. However, not everyone worries about gender pay gaps. According to a survey from 2021, 54 percent of the female respondents deemed the gender pay gap a real problem, compared to 45 percent of the male respondents.

The average for 2021 based on 3 countries was 94.81 percent. The highest value was in Costa Rica: 98.04 percent and the lowest value was in Puerto Rico: 92.4 percent. The indicator is available from 1970 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

A simple dataset for states in the USA, including Washington DC, showing the average literacy rates along with population estimates for 2017. The national average for literacy is 264.

The USAFacts dataset contains the average literacy scores for the years 2012-2017, therefore I decided to use the estimate for the 2017 population from the Census data. I believe this is a decent snapshot in time for comparing literacy to population, looking for any correlations.

Original Sources 1. USAFacts How does literacy vary by state and county? 2. US Census Bureau: State Population Totals and Components of Change: 2010-2019

In 2023, the average adult literacy rates (15 years and older) in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 94.79 percent. Literacy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean have been slightly improving in all three age groups since 2014.

Graph and download economic data for Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean (SEADTLITRZSLAC) from 1974 to 2024 about Caribbean Economies, Latin America, literacy, adult, and rate.

The average for 2021 based on 5 countries was 97.53 percent. The highest value was in Costa Rica: 99.46 percent and the lowest value was in Puerto Rico: 92.4 percent. The indicator is available from 1970 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2023, the share of women aged 15 or older who could read and write in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 94.79 percent, around 0.33 percentage point lower than the literacy rate among adult men. This region's adult literacy rate averaged at 94.8 percent in 2023.

The average for 2021 based on 12 countries was 98.12 percent. The highest value was in Bolivia: 99.5 percent and the lowest value was in Puerto Rico: 92.4 percent. The indicator is available from 1970 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2024, the illiteracy rate among adults aged 15 years and older was almost 32 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Asia, the illiteracy rate was 21.77 percent. The adult illiteracy rate is defined as the percentage of the population aged 15 and older who cannot read or write. Even though illiteracy continues to persist around the world, illiteracy levels have been reduced significantly over the past decades.

Historical Dataset of North Franklin School District is provided by PublicSchoolReview and contain statistics on metrics:Comparison of Diversity Score Trends,Total Revenues Trends,Total Expenditure Trends,Average Revenue Per Student Trends,Average Expenditure Per Student Trends,Reading and Language Arts Proficiency Trends,Math Proficiency Trends,Graduation Rate Trends,Overall School District Rank Trends,American Indian Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1998-2023),Asian Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1991-2023),Hispanic Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1991-2023),Black Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2001-2013),White Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1991-2023),Two or More Races Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2013-2023),Comparison of Students By Grade Trends

The graph depicts the average youth literacy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2016, broken down by gender. In that year, the literacy rate among women aged between 15 and 24 years in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to **** percent. This region's youth literacy rate averaged at **** percent in 2016.

Data for readability, difficult word, and quality analyses.

Cancer and ophthalmology associations’ patient education material: A depiction of the associations that provide patient education material and their respected number of patient education material(s).

a U.S.-born respondents’ mean literacy score (277) is just above the Level 3 threshold (276–325), whereas immigrants’ mean score (241) corresponds to lower Level 2 (226–275).b U.S.-born and immigrant respondents’ mean numeracy scores both correspond to Level 2 (226–275), but they fall at the higher (260) and lower (228) ends of Level 2, respectively.Note: Means and standard deviations reported for continuous variables. Percentages reported for categorical variables; Difference of means/percentage t-tests to determine sig of differences, p-values represent two-tailed testsN = 4,646; weighted valuesDescriptive Statistics for Sample Characteristics by U.S.-Born versus Immigrant.

Readability scores for Chatgpt-4o, Gemini, and Perplexity responses to the most frequently asked Ankylosing spondylitis -related questions, and a statistical comparison of the text content to a 6th-grade reading level [Median, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) (Lower limit of confidence interval- Upper limit of confidence interval)].

In 2024, adults in the United States spent more time reading on weekends than weekdays, according to recent data. The average time spent reading in the U.S. amounted to 0.3 hours (18 minutes) on weekends and holidays, while daily time spent reading on weekdays in 2024 remained belowpre-pandemic levels at just over a quarter of an hour.

A survey conducted in the United States in August 2023 found that digital literacy among U.S. adults varied depending on the age group. Younger generations, aged 18 to 29, showed a much higher awareness of digital topics, such as online privacy, and an understanding of generative AI. However, there was a notable gap between them and individuals 65 and older. For example, only 26 percent of respondents older than 65 years could identify an example of two-factor authentication, compared to 68 percent of younger respondents.

Purpose: There is a lack of quick, reliable, and valid standardized reading comprehension assessments appropriate for postsecondary readers. We attempted to address this gap by designing Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel (RULE), a reading comprehension measure that employs sentence verification and recall tasks to assess reading comprehension. This article describes the exploratory study undertaken to construct RULE and then examines the preliminary concurrent validity and alternate form reliability of this measure.Method: The RULE measure was first developed by designing reading stimuli, test items for the sentence verification task, and directions for the recall test for 2 forms based on previous work (Griffiths, Sohlberg, Kirk, Fickas, & Biancarosa, 2016). Thirty undergraduate students who identified themselves as typical readers were administered the RULE measure as well as the Nelson–Denny Reading Test (Brown, Fishco, & Hanna, 1993). Students also completed questionnaires and participated in informal interviews to provide information regarding study and learning habits and academic background.Results: There was preliminary evidence of alternate form reliability between the sentence verification task sets of 2 chapters of RULE (r = .38, p < .05). Preliminary evidence for concurrent validity between RULE and the Nelson–Denny Reading Test was provided by correlation coefficients in the low to moderate range (.03–.38).Conclusion: RULE design and preliminary findings of concurrent validity and alternate form reliability provide “proof of concept” for an ecologically valid testing format that assesses comprehension skills appropriate for the postsecondary level. Suggestions for strengthening validity and reliability of the tool are provided, and clinical contributions of RULE are discussed.Supplemental Material S1. Comparison between Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel (RULE) measures and alternative measures of reading comprehension. Supplemental Material S2. Comparison between Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel (RULE) measures and Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI; Weinstein, Palmer, & Acee, 2016) Information processing scale.Kucheria, P., Sohlberg, M. M., Yoon, H., Fickas, S., & Prideaux, J. (2018). Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel (RULE): Development and feasibility of a reading comprehension measure for postsecondary learners. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0221

Historical Dataset of Hughson Unified School District is provided by PublicSchoolReview and contain statistics on metrics:Comparison of Diversity Score Trends,Total Revenues Trends,Total Expenditure Trends,Average Revenue Per Student Trends,Average Expenditure Per Student Trends,Reading and Language Arts Proficiency Trends,Math Proficiency Trends,Graduation Rate Trends,Overall School District Rank Trends,American Indian Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2000-2022),Asian Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2000-2023),Hispanic Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1999-2023),Black Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2002-2022),White Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (1999-2023),Two or More Races Student Percentage Comparison Over Years (2011-2021),Comparison of Students By Grade Trends