As of 2021, South Africa's total literacy rate was around 90 percent, which means 90 percent of all South Africans could read and write. There is literally no definitionThe literacy rate measures the percentage of people aged 15 and above who can read and write. There is no common definition for what counts as being literate; individual countries use individual assessments and standards to define it. Despite this, the literacy rate is an important indicator of the standard of education and thus the standard of living in a country. Sub-standard Sub-SaharaAlthough its educational system does not have the best reputation, South Africa’s literacy rate is well above average among their geographical peers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Illiteracy is still a significant global problem, and Sub-Saharan Africa is not among the leading regions when it comes to literacy and education. In 2011, 32 million children of primary school age did not go to school in that region, but projections see enrollment figures increasing in the future – if true, this could not only improve the region’s literacy rates, but also its standard of living and human progress in general.

South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 94.368 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 94.140 % for 2014. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 92.895 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 94.368 % in 2015 and a record low of 76.200 % in 1980. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult: % of People Aged 15 and Above data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Education Statistics. 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.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The youth literacy rate (people aged 15-24) in South Africa amounted to ** percent in 2021. Between 1980 and 2021, the youth literacy rate rose by ** percentage points, though the increase followed an uneven trajectory rather than a consistent upward trend.

South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data was reported at 99.229 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 99.084 % for 2014. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 98.901 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 99.271 % in 2012 and a record low of 84.973 % in 1980. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth Female: % of Females Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Education Statistics. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

In 2023, ***** percent of people aged 15 years and above in Africa were able to read and write a simple statement and understand it. Regionally, Southern Africa presented the highest literacy rate, at around ** percent. North and East Africa had similar shares of literate people, at over ** percent. In contrast, **** percent and ** percent of the adult population in Central and West Africa could read and write.

South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data was reported at 98.956 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 98.882 % for 2014. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 98.644 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.956 % in 2015 and a record low of 85.166 % in 1980. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Youth: % of People Age 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Education Statistics. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 95.397 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 95.287 % for 2014. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 94.144 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 95.397 % in 2015 and a record low of 77.526 % in 1980. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Male: % of Males Aged 15 and Above data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. 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.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above) in South Africa was reported at 91 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August of 2025.

Between 2018 and 2022, Seychelles was the country with the highest adult literacy rate in Africa, at around ** percent. São Tomé and Príncipe and Namibia followed with a literacy rate of approximately ** percent and ** percent, respectively. The average rate on the continent stood at roughly ** percent. Moreover, Southern Africa had the highest literacy levels among African regions.

Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) in South Africa was reported at 96 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August of 2025.

According to the most recent available data, **** percent of people in the age group of 15-24 years in South Africa were able to read and write a simple statement in 2017. Among females, the youth literacy rate was at ***** percent, while males that could read and write were slightly lower at ***** percent. Both represented a drop from the level in 2007. Throughout the period reviewed, more young females were literate than young males.

South Africa: Male literacy rate, ages 15-24: The latest value from 2021 is 96 percent, a decline from 98 percent in 2019. In comparison, the world average is 94.32 percent, based on data from 58 countries. Historically, the average for South Africa from 1980 to 2021 is 96.06 percent. The minimum value, 85 percent, was reached in 1980 while the maximum of 99 percent was recorded in 2014.

Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) in South Africa was reported at 97 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

South Africa ZA: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data was reported at 1.006 Ratio in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 1.004 Ratio for 2014. South Africa ZA: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data is updated yearly, averaging 1.007 Ratio from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.011 Ratio in 2007 and a record low of 0.996 Ratio in 1980. South Africa ZA: Gender Parity Index (GPI): Literacy Rate: Youth Aged 15-24 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Education Statistics. Gender parity index for youth literacy rate is the ratio of females to males ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The overall aim of the USAID/SA basic education program is to improve primary grade reading outcomes by building teacher effectiveness and strengthening classroom and school management. This is being accomplished through support to innovative, local interventions that have a demonstrated capacity for scale-up. The main USAID/SA program is the School Capacity and Innovation Program (SCIP), which also leverages significant private sector resources, amplifying the impact of USAID’s investment in the South African education system. SCIP is co-funded by The ELMA Foundation and J.P. Morgan and designed in collaboration with the South African Department of Basic Education. SCIP supports local South African models or interventions that work directly with teachers and school management teams in innovative ways in order to improve their practice as instructional leaders and managers. SCIP is aligned to the USAID Global Education Strategy (2011–2015) which supports interventions to improve learning outcomes with a focus on primary grade reading as a measure of performance. In addition to seeking initiatives that demonstrate innovation and impact, sustainability and scalability are key components of the SCIP program. The goal of the kaMhinga Literacy Project is to demonstrate that the combination of teacher training and community-based teacher support can sustainably achieve primary grade reading levels at a 60% learner literacy level. This will be done through activities aimed at developing the capacity of teachers. Two assessments are reported per year: a baseline assessment completed in February and a final assessment completed in November. To date, a total of three assessments will be reported – Baseline February 2013, Final November 2013 and Baseline February 2014.

In 2021, **** percent of the people aged 15 to 24 years in Africa were able to read and write a simple statement with understanding. Regionally, North Africa presented the highest youth literacy rate, at nearly ** percent. Southern Africa followed closely, with ** percent of young people literate. In contrast, ** percent of the youth population in West Africa could read and write.

Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) in South Africa was reported at 90 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August 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.

South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data was reported at 93.408 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 93.073 % for 2014. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data is updated yearly, averaging 91.768 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2015, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 93.408 % in 2015 and a record low of 74.807 % in 1980. South Africa ZA: Literacy Rate: Adult Female: % of Females Aged 15 and Above data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. 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.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Abstract

The Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) is a consortium of Ministries of Education and Culture located in the Southern Africa subregion. This consortium works in close partnership with the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). SACMEQ’s main aim is to undertake co-operative educational policy research in order to generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education. SACMEQ’s programme of educational policy research has four features which have optimized its contributions to the field of educational planning: (1) it provides research-based policy advice concerning high-priority educational quality issues that have been identified by key decision-makers in Southern Africa, (2) it functions as a co-operative venture based on a strong network of Ministries of Education and Culture, (3) it combines research and training components that are linked with institutional capacity building, and its future directions are defined by participating ministries. In each participating country, a National Research Co-ordinator is responsible for implementing SACMEQ’s projects.

The SACMEQ I Project commenced in 1995 and was completed in 1999. The SACMEQ I main data collection was implemented in seven SACMEQ Ministries of Education (Kenya, Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe). The study provided "agendas for government action" concerning: educational inputs to schools, benchmark standards for educational provision, equity in the allocation of educational resources, and the reading literacy performance of Grade 6 learners. The data collection for this project included information gathered from around 20,000 learners; 3,000 teachers; and 1,000 school principals.

This co-operative sub-regional educational research project collected data in order to guide decisionmaking in these countries with respect to questions around high priority policy issues. These included: • What are the baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools? • How do the conditions of primary schooling compare with the Ministry of Education and Culture’s own bench-mark standards? • Have educational inputs to schools been allocated in an equitable fashion? • What is the basic literacy level among pupils in upper primary school? • Which educational inputs to primary schools have most impact on pupil reading achievement at the upper primary level?

In 1995 there were five fully active members of SACMEQ: Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Zimbabwe. These Ministries of Education and Culture participated in all phases of SACMEQ’s establishment and its initial educational policy research project. There are also four partially active members of SACMEQ: Kenya, Tanzania (Mainland), Malawi, and Swaziland. These Ministries of Education and Culture have made contributions to the preparation of the Project Plan for SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. Three other countries (Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa) had observer status due to their involvement in SACMEQ related training workshops or their participation in some elements of the preparation of the first proposal for launching SACMEQ.

Geographic coverage

Zanzibar

Analysis unit

• Pupils
• Schools
• Teachers

Universe

The target population for SACMEQ's Initial Project was defined as "all pupils at the Grade 6 level in 1995 who were attending registered government or non-government schools". Grade 6 was chosen because it was the grade level where the basics of reading literacy were expected to have been acquired.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

A stratified two-stage sample design was used to select around 150 schools in each country. Pupils were then selected within these schools by drawing simple random samples. A more detailed explanation of the sampling process is available under the 'Sampling' section of the report provided as external resources.

All sample designs applied in SACMEQ'S initial project were selected so as to meet the standards set down by the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement (Ross, 1991). These standards require sample estimates of important pupil population characteristics to be (a) adjusted by weighing procedures designed to remove the potential for bias that may arise from different probabilities of selection, and (b) have sampling errors for the main criterion variables that are of the same magnitude or smaller than a simple random sample of 400 pupils (thereby providing 95 percent confidence limits for sample estimates of population percentages of plus or minus 5 percentage points, and 95 percent confidence limits for sample estimates of population means of plus or minus one tenth of a pupil standard deviation unit).

The desired target population in Zanzibar was 'all pupils in Standard 6 in 1995 in the ninth month of the school year who were attending registered government or nongovernmental schools in the country'. The numbers of pupils in the desired, excluded, and defined population have been presented in Table 2.2 of the Survey Report provided as external resources.

There were 11 'small' schools excluded from the desired target population. These schools were excluded because they did not have more than 10 pupils in Standard 6. This resulted in 104 pupils being excluded out of 11,712 Standard 6 pupils. One other school in North Unguja region was excluded because it was a new school and the staff and pupils had not settled into a normal school routine. Within each selected school, a simple random sample of 20 pupils was selected from among all Standard 6 pupils. The figure of 20 pupils was determined by the SACMEQ NRCs because conditions in many schools would not permit a valid administration of the reading test if more than 20 pupils per school were involved.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The data collection for SACMEQ's Initial Project took place in October 1995 and involved the administration of questionnaires to pupils, teachers, and school heads. The pupil questionnaire contained questions about the pupils' home backgrounds and their school life; the teacher questionnaire asked about classrooms, teaching practices, working conditions, and teacher housing; and the school head questionnaire collected information about teachers, enrolments, buildings, facilities, and management. A reading literacy test was also given to the pupils. The test was based on items that were selected after a trial-testing programme had been completed.

The SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments include the following documents: - SACMEQ Questionnaires - which are administered to pupils, teachers, and school heads. - SACMEQ Tests - which are administered to pupils and teachers (covering reading mathematics, and HIV-AIDS knowledge). - Other SACMEQ Data Collection Instruments - such as take-home pupil questionnaires, school context proformas, and within-school project management documents.

Cleaning operations

Once the data-collection instruments were returned to the Ministry they were checked to ensure that the instruments for each pupil, each teacher, and each school head were there. Each questionnaire was checked for completeness because it was intended that there should not be any missing data. A team of 10 data-entry staff had been trained by the National Research Co-ordinator. One personal computer was available to be used full-time for each data entry clerk. The Data Entry Manager (DEM) computer software developed at the IIEP (Schleicher,1995) was used to manage the data entry. This software was adapted specifically for the entry of SACMEQ data and no problems were encountered in the installation and use of this software. The data entry took four weeks. All data were entered once and a sample of schools was taken for double entry. No major problems were encountered but in some schools, the data collector had mixed up identification codes and these had to be corrected. After the first stage of data cleaning, the data were returned to IIEP in January, 1996.

Response rate

The response rate for schools was 100 percent and the rate for pupils was 89.2 percent. The non-responding pupils were those who were absent on the day of testing. This absenteeism amounted to around 10 percent, which was higher than expected. However, it should be noted that the testing took place in a holiday period when the Ministry had opened the schools for the purpose of testing. This may well account for the high rate of absenteeism.

Sampling error estimates

An inspection of the sampling weights showed that they did not vary greatly in size. In addition, the sample represented around 20 percent of the defined target population and hence the finite population correction was relatively large compared with other countries. These two features of the sample design resulted in the conclusion that the sampling error for each sample estimate could be approximated by using standard formulae for simple random sampling.