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.

This survey shows men and women by highest educational attainment compared to the general population in Germany in 2021. According to the survey, almost 28 percent of men in Germany achieved school leaving qualification for entering university (Abitur in German).

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) measured proficiency on three scales: prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy. In addition, also background information of participants were assessed: general information (e.g., age, sex, country of birth, language); education (e.g., highest educational achievement, current education, participation in training); current status and work history; current and recent work (e.g., profession, self-employment, and income); skill use (Literacy, Numeracy) at work.

Background questionnaire:

1. General information: born in Germany; country of birth; highest level of schooling before immigration (ISCED); years of formal education completed; highest level of schooling completed (ISCED); second level program (academic/college preparatory, bunisiness (commercial) or trade/vorcational); reasons why the respondent stopped schooling; first language (mother tongue); forein language skills; language spoken at home; language in which the respondent can express himself most easily; information on respondent´s parents: born in Germany, highest level of schooling;

2. Information on current and recent employment: current work situation; employed in the past 12 months; year last worked; number of different employers in the past 12 months; full-time or part-time employment; reasons for working part-time; Major Heading International Standard Industrial Classification for the respondent’s primary employment(ISICR); Major Heading International Standard Classification of Occupations for the respondent’s primary occupation (ISCOR); size of business; employment status; hours worked per week; during the past 12 months: number of week worked at all jobs; wanted to work in the weeks without work; reasons why the respondent did not want to work;

3. Reading and writing at work: skill use at work (Literacy: e.g. letters or memos, reports, articles, magazines or journal, etc.); write or fill out as part of main job (letters or memos, forms or things such as bills, invoices, or budgets, reports or articles, estimates or technical specifications); use mathematics as part of main job (measure or estimate the size or weight of objects, caluculate prices, costs or budgets); self-rating of reading skills, and writing skills in German; extent of limitation of job opportunities by reading skills, and writing skills in German; rating of mathematical skills for the main job; extent of limitation of job opportunities by mathematical skills.

4. Adult education and training: training or education since August 1994; number of courses in the past 12 months; major field of study (up to three courses); training or education was financially supported by the respondent himself or his family, by an employer, the government, etc.; intended aim of these training courses (e.g. a university degree/ diploma/ certificate, a trade-vocational diploma, etc.); provider of this training or education; weeks the course(s) lasted; number of days per week; main reason for course particiaption; extent of using the skills or knowledge acquired in this training or education at work; suggestion to take this cours(es) by the respondent himself, by friends or family, employer, other employees, etc.; training or education was provided through: classroom instructions, seminars or workshops, educational software, etc.

5. Reading and writing general: frequency of activities (use a public library, attend a movie, play or concert, attend or take part in a sporting event, write e.g. letters more than one page in length, participate in volunteer or community organisations, reading newspapers or magazines, reading books, listening to radio, records, tapes cassettes or compact discs); hours per day watching television or videos; currently in the home: daily newspaper/magazines, weekly newspaper/magazines, more than 25 books, a multi-volume encyclopedia, a dictionary; frequency of how often the respondent needs help from others with reading newspaper articles, reading information from government agencies, filling out forms, reading instructions such as on medicine bottles, reading instructions on packaged goods in stores, doing basic arithmetic, and writing notes and letters; self-rating of skills needed in daily life: reading and writing skills in German as well as of mathematical skills; impairment by eye/visual trouble or/and a learning disability; problems occurred while the respondent were in primary or secondary school; impairments currently exist.

6. Household information: income sources (from wages, salary or self-employment, from government or state sources (social assistance or unemployment support), from government or state pensions, from interest, dividends, investment, property or private pensions, or from other sources); estimate of personal income from only wages, salary or self-emploment (quintiles); size of household; estimate of the total income of all household members (quintiles); ...

In 2020, 72 percent of skilled labor businesses in Germany stated they experienced problems with finding qualified employees. 59 percent had difficulties filling apprenticeship positions. The figures are based on a survey conducted in Germany in 2020, asking skilled labor businesses about their employees' digital literacy.

In the project "Studie zum Zusammenhang von Kompetenzen und Arbeitsmarktchancen von gering Qualifizierten in Deutschland" (Study on the Relationship between Skills and Labour Market Opportunities of People with Low Qualifications in Germany, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, funding number PLI3061), the skills and labour market opportunities of people aged 26 to 55 in Germany were examined in more detail. This is an age group that is in the active employment phase and has generally completed its training phase. In order to be able to make reliable statements about this group, an increase sample of people aged 26 to 55 living in eastern Germany was drawn at the same time as the PIAAC sample was drawn. The 560 additional cases surveyed are not part of the main sample in the PIAAC Public and Scientific Use Files (ZA 5845), but were later combined with the net cases of the PIAAC main sample (aged 26 to 55) in the present dataset.

The present data set thus includes the supplementary sample for East Germany and the 26 to 55-year-old respondents from the main sample (study number ZA 5845). For these persons, competence values (plausible values) are available in the following areas as well as background information - reading literacy - expertise in everyday mathematics - technology-based problem solving.

Respondents aged 26 to 55 from the main PIAAC sample may have slightly different values in some variables in this data set. These include competence, income and weighting variables. The reason for this is that the imputation and scaling procedures for these variables were performed separately for both datasets to ensure maximum internal consistency of each dataset.

The background questionnaire for PIAAC is divided into the following topics:

A: General information such as age and gender

B: Education as the highest educational attainment, current education, participation in further education

C: Employment status and background such as paid work and unpaid work for a family business, job search information

D: Information on current employment such as occupation, self-employment and income

E: Information on last gainful employment such as occupation, self-employment, reason for leaving the company

Q: Skills used at work such as influence and physical skills

G: Reading, writing, etc. during work

H: Reading, writing etc. in everyday life

I: Attitude and self-assessment to e.g. learning and voluntary work

J: background information such as country of birth, nationality, language, professions of parents

In addition, the data set contains further derived background variables, information on competence measurement, information on sampling and weighting, limited regional data, and time data for the interview.

For data protection reasons, the information on the municipal size class is only available to a limited extent. Furthermore, the data on the country of origin, nationality and the country where the highest school leaving certificate was obtained have been coarsened. These data were categorised on the basis of the microcensus.

14 percent of German companies stated their apprentices were at the "very good" level as far as IT security knowledge was concerned. 25 percent, on the other hand, had the opposite opinion, saying that there was room for improvement. The survey was conducted in 2019 to learn about apprentice's digital media literacy in German companies.

Labor force with advanced education (% of total working-age population with advanced education) in Germany was reported at 72.9 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Germany - Labor force with advanced education (% of total) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on March of 2025.

This data file contains competency scores (plausible values) for each participant in the domains

̶ Literacy ̶ Numeracy ̶ Problem solving in technology-rich environments

as well as their background information.

It contains more detailed information about respondents in Germany than the German public use file for PIAAC available at the OECD homepage (http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/publicdataandanalysis.htm).

The background questionnaire is divided in the following sections:

A: General Information, such as age and gender; B: Education, such as highest educational achievement, current education, participation in continuing education; C: Current status and work history, such as paid work and unpaid work for family business, information on job search; D: Current work, such as profession, self-employment, and income; E: Recent work, such as profession, self-employment, reason for quitting; F: Skills used at work, such as influence and physical skills; G: Skill use Literacy, Numeracy and ICT at work; H: Skill use Literacy, Numeracy and ICT in everyday life; I: About yourself, such as readiness to learn and volunteering; J: Background information, such as country of birth, citizenship, language, parents’ profession.

Additionally, the data file contains further derived variables, information on competency assessment, information on sampling and weighting, limited regional information and time information of the interview.

When asked about "Attitudes towards the internet", most Polish respondents pick "It is important to me to have mobile internet access in any place at any time" as an answer. 63 percent did so in our online survey in 2024. Looking to gain valuable insights about users of internet providers worldwide? Check out our

IntroductionDepressive disorders constitute a significant public health challenge. Health literacy might be an important factor to consider in prevention strategies for depressive disorders, which is why this study aimed at exploring the association between depressive symptom levels and severity and health literacy, along with additional sociodemographic factors.Materials and methodsData were collected from two large samples of adults (N = 3,011) and adolescents (N = 1,021) representative of the German-speaking population in Germany. Levels of health literacy (HLS-EU-Q16 questionnaire), depressive symptom severity, rates of depression levels (PHQ-9 questionnaire) and sociodemographic information (age, gender, social status, level of education) were obtained. The associations between sociodemographic factors, health literacy and depression were analyzed using t-tests, analyses of variance and χ2-tests.ResultsOverall, rates of depression were high in both samples (16.5% in adults and 18.4% in adolescents) when measured with the sum score ≥ 10 cut-off criterion and substantially lower when assessed with the diagnostic algorithm criterion (7.2% in adults and 9.8% in adolescents). Rates of depression and severity of depressive symptoms were higher in female than male individuals in both samples. Depressive symptom severity and depression rates increased with increasing age in adolescents and decreased with increasing age in adults. Higher levels of education and lower social status were associated with higher depressive symptom severity and rates in adults, with a more heterogeneous picture in adolescents. In both samples, depressive symptom severity and rates were higher in individuals with poorer health literacy.DiscussionThe results point to a potential role for health literacy in preventing depressive disorders. More research is needed with longitudinal and experimental study designs into the question whether public health interventions targeting health literacy improvements could play a critical role in reducing the burden of depression across different age cohorts.

In 2011/2012, key adult competencies were assessed in 24 countries (including Germany) as a part of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The German PIAAC Longitudinal Project (PIAAC-L) follows up the German PIAAC sample with three additional waves of data collection (in 2014, 2015, and 2016), each with a somewhat different focus. The PIAAC-L questionnaires are largely based on core instruments from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), but sometimes include parts of the PIAAC background questionnaire and various additional questions and modules on the respondent’s background adopted from other surveys as well as a number of new questions. In addition, assessment instruments from PIAAC and NEPS (National Educational Panel Study) measuring key competencies are implemented. The objective of the PIAAC-L project is to significantly expand the German PIAAC database by adding a longitudinal dimension and by enriching the depth and breadth of information available on the German PIAAC respondents. This approach extends the analytical potential of the German PIAAC data and allows a myriad of additional research questions to be addressed. PIAAC-L is a collaborative effort undertaken by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (lead) together with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi).

The German PIAAC 2012 respondents that had given their consent to being re-contacted for a potential follow-up survey (anchor persons) form the starting point for PIAAC-L. In order to obtain further information on the context of these anchor persons, the PIAAC-L approach additionally includes household members ages 18+ as well as the administration of a comprehensive household questionnaire (in waves 1 and 3).

The 2014 data collection (wave 1) implemented core SOEP questionnaires (for persons and households). For the 2015 data collection (wave 2), we developed an extensive background questionnaire (including items from PIAAC, NEPS, SOEP, as well as a number of other surveys). This questionnaire, followed by an assessment of literacy and numeracy using PIAAC and NEPS measurement instruments, was administered to anchor persons and their partners – if the latter lived in the same household as the anchor. As in wave 1, the 2016 data collection once again collected interviews from all adults living in the anchor person’s household using core SOEP questionnaires; the SOEP person questionnaire was extended to include new questions and modules (for example on adult education). In wave 3, respondents were also administered the SOEP short cognitive performance tasks. In addition, cognitive items from a Number Series Study carried out by the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) were included as an add-on module.

Data Collection 2014 Core SOEP questionnaires were implemented in the 2014 data collection. The household questionnaire includes the following topics: - Living situation, conditions and costs - Household income and benefits, wealth - Children and other household members

The person questionnaire includes questions on: - Background information, family, and childhood - Biographical calendar - Formal education (general and vocational education), continuing professional education - Work status, situation and history - Income and benefits - Health, attitudes, personality, opinions, satisfaction - Time use and leisure activities

Data Collection 2015 In 2015 respondents were administered first a CAPI questionnaire and then a cognitive assessment using PIAAC instruments and NEPS instruments. The person questionnaire encompasses questions from several surveys (e.g., PIAAC 2012, SOEP, NEPS, AES, or PISA) and includes the following topics: - General, vocational and professional education - Current status and employment, income - Skills used at work - Computer skill use - Mother tongue(s) and knowledge of foreign languages - Self-assessment of numeracy and literacy - Health, leisure, friends - Family and relationships - Background information (e.g., parents, citizenship) - Satisfaction

The cognitive assessment implemented the following instruments: - PIAAC Literacy - PIAAC Numeracy - NEPS Reading Speed - NEPS Reading - NEPS Mathematics As in PIAAC 2012, the PIAAC assessment items were administered per default computer-based, but a paper-based version was available for respondents who could or would not work on the items on the computer. The NEPS items were paper-based only, as is usually the case in the NEPS.

The design of the cognitive assessment is different for anchor persons and their partners. For the anchor persons, there were eight different assessment conditions: Two with only NEPS items, two with only PIAAC items, and four with some items from PIAAC and some from the NEPS. The partners of the anchor persons worked exclusively on NEPS items (two assessment...

ObjectivesKnowledge concerning antibiotic use in the general population is insufficient. The way health literacy is related to antibiotic use aside from knowledge needs further investigation. Our aim was to compare the levels of knowledge of antibiotics and health literacy in individuals who had taken antibiotics in recent years compared with those who not had taken antibiotics.MethodsA population-based cross-sectional survey of 2,000 individuals aged 35 and older from Berlin, Germany and its surrounding rural and suburban areas (response rate 59%) with strata urban/rural, sex, age, and education. Computer-assisted personal interviews were conducted by external, trained interviewers during home visits. Knowledge, health literacy, and antibiotic use were assessed using standardized questionnaires.ResultsIn all, 33.3% (666/2,000) of the participants indicated having had an antimicrobial therapy during the previous 12 months. Adjusting for sex, age, educational level and health literacy, individuals with four correct answers regarding antibiotics were 1.70 times and those with three correct answers 1.94 more likely to have had a history of recent antibiotic use than those who did not have any correct answers. Individuals with sufficient health literacy were 0.57 times less likely to have had a recent history of antibiotic use than individuals with insufficient health literacy.ConclusionPatients who have used antibiotics might have more knowledge as a result of their recent involvement with the topic of antibiotic use; health literacy may be a preventive mechanism to use antibiotics more critically. Besides improving the health knowledge of the general population and of vulnerable groups such as patients with low levels of health literacy, intervention strategies should focus on providers as well.

This data file contains competency scores (plausible values) for each participant in the domains ̶ Literacy ̶ Numeracy ̶ Problem solving in technology-rich environments as well as their background information.

It contais more detailed information about respondents in Germany than the German public use file for PIAAC available at the OECD homepage (http://www.oecd.org/site/piaac/publicdataandanalysis.htm).

The background questionnaire for CiLL is identical to the background questionnaire for PIAAC and is devided into the following topics:

A: General Information, such as age and gender; B: Education, such as highest educational achievement, current education, participation in continuing education; C: Current status and work history, such as paid work and unpaid work for family business, information on job search; D: Current work, such as profession, self-employment, and income; E: Recent work, such as profession, self-employment, reason for quitting; F: Skills used at work, such as influence and physical skills; G: Skill use Literacy, Numeracy etc. at work; H: Skill use Literacy, Numeracy etc. in everyday life; I: About yourself, such as readiness to learn and volunteering; J: Background information, such as country of birth, citizenship, language, parents’ profession.

Additionally, the data file contains further derived variables, information on competency assessment, information on sampling and weighting, limited regional information and time information of the interview.

Forecast: Import of Printed Reading Books, Brochures, Leaflets to Germany 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Random digit dialling, stratified by region

When asked about "Attitudes towards the internet", most Italian respondents pick "It is important to me to have mobile internet access in any place at any time" as an answer. 52 percent did so in our online survey in 2024. Looking to gain valuable insights about users of internet providers worldwide? Check out our

This statistic shows the number of new participants in integration courses in Germany in 2023, by course type. In 2023, around 305,757 people participated in literacy courses for the first time.

Knowledge test in the areas mathematics, computers, geography, cars, traffic, daily life, economy, literature, theater and art. Topics: degree of familiarity of selected personalities and assignment to their fields of activity; assignment of famous statements to their authors; knowledge of prices and costs for selected products; knowledge of famous art works (sample picture) and assignment to the artists who created these works; knowledge about the braking distance of motor vehicles; assignment of car types to manufacturer name; knowledge of traffic regulations on the freewas and at crossings; knowledge about the location of selected states on a map of Germany; knowledge of capital cities; solving mathematical tasks; knowledge of computer terms; frequency of reading selected newspaper categories; frequency of attending sporting events and cultural events; frequency of use of calculators, computers, video recorders, CD-players, reference works, telephone and bicycle; knowledge of comic characters from the Asterix stories; number of bits in a byte; knowledge about the binary system; knowledge about the value added tax rate, the current interest rates and income tax rate for top earners; knowledge of economic technical terms such as currency, cash discount and embargo; knowledge of works of Goethe; assignment of selected book titles to their authors; knowledge about the location of the Loreley Rock and the poet who wrote poem about it as well as saying the first line; attitude to reading books; preference for a course on technology or literature; possession of drivers license; number of kilometers driven annually. religiousness; occupational use of calculators, computers and foreign languages; frequency of reading books; interest in politics; self-classification on a left-right continuum; party preference; watching television in hours; deliberate selection of programs or zapping; possession of durable economic goods including bicycle, music instrument, Duden, lexicon, Bible and telephone; frequency of writing personal letters; difficulties with filling out forms; estimated number of books possessed in the household; problem-solving ability of science; importance of all-round education.

This statistic shows the results of a survey on the familiarity of offers for children and teenagers supporting media literacy and programming skills in Germany in 2017. That year, of men, 39 percent were aware of such offers.

Association of cardiovascular diseases and difficulties in single health literacy items (HLS-EU-Q16) in women (n = 7,437, unweighted).