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 2023, about 90.6 percent of men and a little less than 84.1 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.

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.

The United Kingdom: Literacy rate: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.00 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) in World was reported at 87.36 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. World - Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

Global Adult Literacy Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The United Kingdom: Youth literacy rate, ages 15-24: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.00 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

Global Male Adult Literacy Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The United Kingdom: Male literacy rate, ages 15-24: The latest value from is percent, unavailable from percent in . In comparison, the world average is 0.00 percent, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from to is percent. The minimum value, percent, was reached in while the maximum of percent was recorded in .

This is the proportion of children in the area at expected level in each of the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) within the Literacy area of the assessment. Literacy is one of the 4 specific areas of learning and covers the ELGs: Comprehension, Word reading, and Writing.

The early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile is a teacher assessment of children’s development at the end of the EYFS, specifically the end of the academic year in which a child turns 5. This is typically the summer term of reception year. The EYFSP was introduced in 2012/13.

As part of wider reforms to the EYFS, the EYFS profile was revised significantly in September 2021. Changes included revisions to all 17 ELGs across the 7 areas of learning, the removal of ‘exceeding’ assessment band, and the removal of statutory local authority moderation. It is therefore not possible to directly compare 2021/22 assessment outcomes with earlier years. The 2019/20 and 2020/21 collections were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teacher assessments cover all schools and early years providers with children registered for government-funded early years provision at the end of the EYFS. These include all state-funded schools and maintained nursery schools, children in private, voluntary and independent (PVI) providers, including childminders. Excludes a child who has not been assessed due to long periods of absence, for instance a prolonged illness, or arrived too late in the summer term for teacher assessment to be carried out, or for an exemption.

Local authority district data are based on matching the postcode of the school or provider to the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL). Percentages may not sum to 100.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

British Virgin Islands literacy rate for was 0.00%, a 0% increase from .

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<li>British Virgin Islands literacy rate for was <strong>0.00%</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from .</li>
<li>British Virgin Islands literacy rate for was <strong>0.00%</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from .</li>
</ul>Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.

This statistic displays the share of respondents who felt that universal education and literacy was a priority in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017. Of the respondents surveyed, the generational group who agreed with this statement the most was the group identified as Millennials, with six percent of this group stating that universal education and literacy was a priority. The generational group who agreed least with this statement were those identified as Boomers with only three percent agreeing that it was a priority.

Global Female Adult Literacy Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Adult skills need estimates for literacy, numeracy, information communication and technology and ESOL across England

Source: Department for Education and Skills (DfES): Read Write Plus Skills for Life

Publisher: Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF)

Geographies: Ward, Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Learnings and Skills Council (LSC)

Geographic coverage: England

Time coverage: 2002/03

Type of data: Modelled data

Notes: The SfL Survey was in two parts. The first was based around a 20-minute background interview and two skills assessments one for literacy and one for numeracy. On this basis respondents were assigned to one of 5 skill levels for both literacy and numeracy (Entry level 1 or below, Entry level 2, Entry level 3, Level 1, and Level 2 and above). The survey was clustered by wards within Government Office Regions and there were 8,730 interviews with adults in households aged 16-65, representing a 59% response rate of selected households. Non-response weights have been calculated for region, age and sex.

Global Youth Literacy Rate by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

As of the third quarter of 2024 nearly 50 percent of online users in the United Kingdom (UK) declined cookies on websites at least some of the time. Another 41.1 percent worried about how companies might use their online data. Furthermore, around 27 percent reported using a tool to block advertisements on the internet at least some of the time.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the project was to provide machine-readable economic and social history statistics relating to the whole of Ireland for the period 1821-1971. Further information about the project is available on the QUB Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis website.


Main Topics:

The main tables are:
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by baronies and gender (1841-1861).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties, gender and age groups (1841, 1901-1911).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties and gender (1851-1861).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties, gender, age groups and religion (1871-1891).

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

In 2022, students in the United Kingdom achieved an average PISA score of *** in reading, compared with *** in 2018. This was the joint-lowest score in the provided time period, suggesting that reading ability among students has declined in the UK.

A 2023 survey among internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) found that 90 percent of the users between 16 and 24 years were confident that they could identify scam e-mails. Among individuals between 35 and 54 years, 80 percent expressed similar confidence in recognizing online scams received via e-mail.