Among the states in India, Kerala had the highest literary rate with ** percent in 2011. Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and the capital territory of Delhi followed Kerala with above average literacy rates. Notably, all the leading states in the country had more literate males than females at the time of the census.

Literacy in India has been increasing as more and more people receive a better education, but it is still far from all-encompassing. In 2023, the degree of literacy in India was about 77 percent, with the majority of literate Indians being men. It is estimated that the global literacy rate for people aged 15 and above is about 86 percent. How to read a literacy rateIn order to identify potential for intellectual and educational progress, the literacy rate of a country covers the level of education and skills acquired by a country’s inhabitants. Literacy is an important indicator of a country’s economic progress and the standard of living – it shows how many people have access to education. However, the standards to measure literacy cannot be universally applied. Measures to identify and define illiterate and literate inhabitants vary from country to country: In some, illiteracy is equated with no schooling at all, for example. Writings on the wallGlobally speaking, more men are able to read and write than women, and this disparity is also reflected in the literacy rate in India – with scarcity of schools and education in rural areas being one factor, and poverty another. Especially in rural areas, women and girls are often not given proper access to formal education, and even if they are, many drop out. Today, India is already being surpassed in this area by other emerging economies, like Brazil, China, and even by most other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To catch up, India now has to offer more educational programs to its rural population, not only on how to read and write, but also on traditional gender roles and rights.

The data shows the year-wise and state or union territory-wise literacy and rural and urban literacy, for male, female, and total literacy, in India according to Census.

Note: 1. Literacy rate is defined as the population of literates in the population aged 7 year and above. 2. The 1991 data (Excluding Jammu & Kashmir)and 2001 data (Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao Maran and Pura sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001) refer to Census of India.

Analysis of ‘Govt Of India Literacy Rate’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/doncorleone92/govt-of-india-literacy-rate on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Context

This is the official dataset released by the govt. of India based on the census 2001 and 2011 survey.

Content

The data is of 35 Indian states and union territories. The literacy rate is spread across the major parameters - Overall, Rural and Urban. All the data is percentage of the total population of that state.

Acknowledgements

Derived from the govt. of India's official site.

Inspiration

Understand the literacy rate in India and which states/UT's have the highest growth in terms of increased literacy rates.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

In 2011, around ***** percent of India's total population with disability were literate, at approximately ***** million out of 26.81 million of disabled people. Meanwhile, respectively more than ** percent of disabled people in Kerala and in Goa were literate. In comparison, less than *** in **** disabled people in Arunachal Pradesh were literate.

The dataset contains Year and State wise Literacy Rate

Note: 1. Literacy rates for 1951, 1961 and 1971 Censuses relate to population aged five years and above. The rates for the 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 Censuses relate to the population aged seven years and above. The literacy rate for 1951 in case of West Bengal relates to total population including 0-4 age group. Literacy rate for 1951 in respect of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur are based on sample population. 2. India and Manipur figures exclude those of the three sub-divisions viz., Mao Maram, Paomata and Purul of Senapati district of Manipur as census result of 2001 in these three sub-divisions were cancelled due to technical and administrative reasons.

The statistic displays the main states and union territories in India with the highest number of illiterate people in 2011. In that year, Uttar Pradesh was at the top of the list, with more than ** million illiterate people, followed by the state of Bihar with over ** million people.

Literacy Rate: Tamil Nadu data was reported at 80.100 % in 12-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 73.450 % for 12-01-2001. Literacy Rate: Tamil Nadu data is updated decadal, averaging 58.525 % from Dec 1961 (Median) to 12-01-2011, with 6 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 80.100 % in 12-01-2011 and a record low of 36.390 % in 12-01-1961. Literacy Rate: Tamil Nadu data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Education Sector – Table IN.EDA001: Literacy Rate.

This layer shows State-Wise Literacy Rates (1951-2011).Source of data: https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/doc/stat/tab85.pdfNote:India and Manipur figures exclude those of the three sub-divisions viz. Mao Maram, Paomata and Purul of Senapati district of Manipur as census results of 2001 in these three sub-divisions were cancelled due to technical and administrative reasons.Literacy rates for 1951, 1961 and 1971 Censuses relate to population aged five years and above and from 1981 onwards Literacy rates relate to the population aged seven years and above. The literacy rate for 1951 in case of West Bengal relates to total population including 0-4 age group. Literacy rate for 1951 in respect of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur are based on sample population.This web layer is offered by Esri India, for ArcGIS Online subscribers. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know via content@esri.in.

The statistic displays the literacy rate in rural and urban regions of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India in 2011, with a breakdown by gender. In that year, the literacy rate among males living in rural areas in Uttar Pradesh was around 76 percent. India's literacy rate from 1981 through 2011 can be found here.

The data shows the distribution of population by literates and literacy rate by gender for the states and union territories of India from the 2011 census.

As of 2021, India recorded a higher nationwide literacy rate among men than women, at respectively **** percent of male population and **** percent of female population. The gender literacy gap was more evident in rural India, with only ** percent of women aged between 15 and 49 years being literate, compared to over ** percent of their male counterparts in the region.

Literacy Rate: Uttar Pradesh data was reported at 67.700 % in 12-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 56.270 % for 12-01-2001. Literacy Rate: Uttar Pradesh data is updated decadal, averaging 32.650 % from Dec 1951 (Median) to 12-01-2011, with 7 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 67.700 % in 12-01-2011 and a record low of 12.020 % in 12-01-1951. Literacy Rate: Uttar Pradesh data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Education Sector – Table IN.EDA001: Literacy Rate.

The statistic displays the literacy rate in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India between 1991 and 2011, broken down by gender. In 2001, close to 70 percent of the male population living in Uttar Pradesh knew how to read or write. India's literacy rate from 1981 through 2011 can be found here.

Documentation

Description and codebook for subset of harmonized variables:

Section 2

Guide to datasets:

Full Project Name: The Impact of Mother Literacy and Participation Programs on Child Learning in India

Unique ID: 458

PIs: Rukmini Banerji, James Berry, Marc Shotland

Location: Indian states of Bihar and Rajasthan

Sample: Around 9,000 households in 480 villages

Timeline: 2010 to 2012

Target Group: Children Parents Rural population Women and girls

Outcome of Interest: Employment, Student learning ,Women’s/girls’ decision-making, Gender attitudes and norms

Intervention Type: Early childhood development, Tracking and remedial education, Empowerment training

Associated publications: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20150390

More information: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluation/impact-mother-literacy-and-participation-programs-child-learning-india

Dataverse: Banerji, Rukmini; Berry, James; Shotland, Marc, 2017, “The Impact of Maternal Literacy and Participation Programs: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/19PPE7, Harvard Dataverse, V1

Section 3

Survey instrument:

Testing tools:

Section 4

Survey instrument:

Testing tools:

Section 5

No associated survey instrument

Section 6

This dataset was created on 2021-10-06 20:35:41.921 by merging multiple datasets together. The source datasets for this version were:

Maternal Literacy in India Baseline: Modified from ml_merged : contains data with variables only from baseline surveys

Maternal Literacy in India Endline: Modified from ml_merged : contains data with variables only from endline surveys

Maternal Literacy in India Raw Administrative Statistics: ml_admin_stats_raw: Contains administrative statistics from the 2011 census and aser surveys used in online Appendix Table 1 in the paper; this is merged with some of the survey data to create ml_admin_stats

Literacy Rate: Bihar data was reported at 61.800 % in 12-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 47.000 % for 12-01-2001. Literacy Rate: Bihar data is updated decadal, averaging 32.320 % from Dec 1951 (Median) to 12-01-2011, with 7 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 61.800 % in 12-01-2011 and a record low of 13.490 % in 12-01-1951. Literacy Rate: Bihar data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Education Sector – Table IN.EDA001: Literacy Rate.

Literacy Rate: Kerala data was reported at 94.000 % in 12-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 90.860 % for 12-01-2001. Literacy Rate: Kerala data is updated decadal, averaging 78.850 % from Dec 1951 (Median) to 12-01-2011, with 7 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 94.000 % in 12-01-2011 and a record low of 47.180 % in 12-01-1951. Literacy Rate: Kerala data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Education Sector – Table IN.EDA001: Literacy Rate.

The statistic presents the literacy rate in rural and urban regions of Kerala in India in 2011, with a breakdown by gender. In 2011, the literacy rate among males living in rural areas in Kerala was around 95 percent. Kerala had the highest literacy rate in India in that year.

Literacy Rate: Delhi data was reported at 86.200 % in 12-01-2011. This records an increase from the previous number of 81.670 % for 12-01-2001. Literacy Rate: Delhi data is updated decadal, averaging 73.615 % from Dec 1961 (Median) to 12-01-2011, with 6 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 86.200 % in 12-01-2011 and a record low of 61.950 % in 12-01-1961. Literacy Rate: Delhi data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Education Sector – Table IN.EDA001: Literacy Rate.

The average for 2021 based on 13 countries was 86.52 percent. The highest value was in Uzbekistan: 100 percent and the lowest value was in Afghanistan: 37 percent. The indicator is available from 1970 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.