United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Other Small States was 86.25975 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Other Small States reached a record high of 86.25975 in January of 2023 and a record low of 71.82288 in January of 1983. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Other Small States - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

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.

United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Lower Middle Income Countries was 77.63182 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Lower Middle Income Countries reached a record high of 77.63182 in January of 2023 and a record low of 47.38413 in January of 1975. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Lower Middle Income Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

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 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.

Historical dataset showing U.S. literacy rate by year from N/A to N/A.

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.

This dataset provides values for LITERACY RATE ADULT TOTAL PERCENT OF PEOPLE AGES 15 AND ABOVE WB DATA.HTML reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

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• The Healthcare IT market size is expected to be worth around USD 1728 Bn by 2032
• According to a report by UNESCO, countries in South and South-West Asia have the highest number of illiterate adults in the world, estimated at 388 million.
• Approximately 36% of adult Americans possess only basic or below basic health literacy skills.
• Only 12% of Americans are considered proficient in their health literacy skills.
• Health literacy levels in China increased from 6.48% of the population in 2008 to 23.15% in 2020.
• A recent study analyzing global health literacy research from 1995 to 2020 identified the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom as major contributors to the international collaboration network on health literacy.
• Mental health has been the most active research field in recent years in the context of health literacy.

The average for 2021 based on 12 countries was 98.27 percent. The highest value was in Costa Rica: 99.53 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 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.

United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Least Developed Countries was 67.71457 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Least Developed Countries reached a record high of 67.71457 in January of 2023 and a record low of 40.17880 in January of 1981. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Least Developed Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

The National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) is administered by the Division of Adult Education and Literacy in the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Aggregated data, data from individual US states and territories, and narrative reports, all covering program years 2000-2022, were downloaded from https://nrs.ed.gov/ between 2025-02-06 and 2025-02-09. Aggregated reports were uploaded to Data Lumos as both regular files and a zipped folder; state data tables were only uploaded as a zipped folder, due to the high number of individual files. Total, there are 11,206 files and 628 folders in the entire dataset, due to the way it was structured on the original website.

There is a gender gap in the literacy rate among the youth worldwide. Although the literacy rates have increased worldwide for both young men and women between 15 and 24 years, men are on average more literate than women. As of 2023, nearly 94 percent of young men and roughly 91.7 percent of women in the world were literate. A similar picture was seen for the adult population worldwide.

United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for the Arab World was 76.15426 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for the Arab World reached a record high of 76.15426 in January of 2023 and a record low of 44.90297 in January of 1977. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for the Arab World - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on July of 2025.

Historical dataset showing Central America literacy rate by year from N/A to N/A.

In 2023, 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 25 percent. Adult illiteracy rate is defined as the percentage of the population aged 15 and older who can not read or write. Even though illiteracy continues to persist around the world, illiteracy levels have been reduced significantly over the past decades.

United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Upper Middle Income Countries was 95.61952 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Upper Middle Income Countries reached a record high of 95.79682 in January of 2020 and a record low of 69.21488 in January of 1976. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Upper Middle Income Countries - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on June of 2025.

Historical dataset showing North America literacy rate by year from 2003 to 2022.

United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Small States was 87.28028 % of People Ages 15 and Above in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Small States reached a record high of 87.28028 in January of 2023 and a record low of 76.87106 in January of 1986. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Small States - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on June of 2025.