In 2023, the rate of adult literacy as share of the country's population 15 years and above in Sub-Saharan Africa remained nearly unchanged at around 68.2 percent. Still, the rate of adult literacy reached its highest value in the observed period in 2023. The adult literacy rate refers to the share of individuals aged 15 years and older who can read and write as well as understand simple expressions about their daily lives.

Graph and download economic data for Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Developing Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SEADTLITRZSSSA) from 1985 to 2024 about Sub-Saharan Africa, literacy, adult, and rate.

In 2020, **** percent of people aged 15 years and above in Sub-Saharan Africa were able to read and write a simple statement. The adult literacy rate varied, however, according to gender. While **** percent of males were literate, the share among females was measured at **** percent. Overall, the literate population has been slowly growing in the region, with the prevalence of a wide gender gap.

In 2020, **** percent of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa were able to read and write a simple sentence with understanding. The youth literacy rate was higher among men (** percent) than women (** percent). However, the gender gap has been decreasing. In 2000, **** percent of young men were literate in the region, against **** percent of women.

Historical dataset showing Sub-Saharan Africa literacy rate by year from 1985 to 2023.

In 2023, the youth literacy rate (people aged 15-24) in Sub-Saharan Africa remained nearly unchanged at around ***** percent. Nevertheless, 2023 still represents a peak in the youth literacy rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. The youth literacy rate refers to the share of individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 and who can read and write as well as understand simple expressions about their daily lives.

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.

The average for 2021 based on 13 countries was 81.92 percent. The highest value was in Mauritius: 99.04 percent and the lowest value was in Burkina Faso: 66.65 percent. The indicator is available from 1970 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2024, 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 21.77 percent. The adult illiteracy rate is defined as the percentage of the population aged 15 and older who cannot read or write. Even though illiteracy continues to persist around the world, illiteracy levels have been reduced significantly over the past decades.

La moyenne pour 2021 était de 75.38 pour cent. La valeur la plus élevée était au Maurice: 99.58 pour cent et la valeur la plus basse était au Guinée: 49.09 pour cent. Vous trouverez ci-dessous un graphique pour tous les pays où les données sont disponibles.

In 2020, China had a youth literacy rate of about **** percent. In contrast, Afghanistan's youth literacy rate stood at **** percent in 2021.Indicators for the literacy rateAn indicator which can be seen to affect the literacy rate is the governmental effort in investing in education. The amount of funds invested into the education sector is a factor which can determine a country’s state of education, as the amount of money being spent on education would have an impact on resources, learning environment, and teaching quality. Singapore’s student-teacher ratio in primary education is significantly lower than that of South Asian countries. For instance, Nepal had 20.3 students for every teacher in 2019. Meanwhile, Singaporean teachers only had around **** students on average as of 2020. Notably, South Asia, together with sub-Saharan Africa, had a much higher illiteracy rate compared to the East Asian and Pacific region in 2022. The importance of literacyThe literacy rate indicates the percentage of people within a population who can read and write. This enables them to identify, understand and interpret materials with various contexts. Ensuring literacy for all pupils is a part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for quality education. This in turn stimulates economic and societal growth for the future.

La moyenne pour 2021 était de 78.72 pour cent. La valeur la plus élevée était au Maurice: 99.3 pour cent et la valeur la plus basse était au Guinée: 60.33 pour cent. Vous trouverez ci-dessous un graphique pour tous les pays où les données sont disponibles.

Sociodemographic and economic characteristics of women of reproductive age in five Sub-Saharan Africa countries using DHS 2021-2023.

Description:

A good education offers individuals the opportunity to lead richer, more interesting lives. At a societal level, it creates opportunities for humanity to solve its pressing problems.

The world has gone through a dramatic transition over the last few centuries, from one where very few had any basic education to one where most people do. This is not only reflected in the inputs to education – enrollment and attendance – but also in outcomes, where literacy rates have greatly improved.

Getting children into school is also not enough. What they learn matters. There are large differences in educational outcomes: in low-income countries, most children cannot read by the end of primary school. These inequalities in education exacerbate poverty and existing inequalities in global incomes.

About Dataset: There are 4 dataset in this page: 1- share-of-the-world-population-with-at-least-basic-education:

Access to education is now seen as a fundamental right – in many cases, it’s the government’s duty to provide it.

But formal education is a very recent phenomenon. In the chart, we see the share of the adult population – those older than 15 – that has received some basic education and those who haven’t.

In the early 1800s, fewer than 1 in 5 adults had some basic education. Education was a luxury, in all places, it was only available to a small elite.

But you can see that this share has grown dramatically, such that this ratio is now reversed. Less than 1 in 5 adults has not received any formal education.

This is reflected in literacy data, too: 200 years ago, very few could read and write. Now most adults have basic literacy skills.

2- learning-adjusted-years-of-school-lays:

There are still significant inequalities in the amount of education children get across the world.

This can be measured as the total number of years that children spend in school. However, researchers can also adjust for the quality of education to estimate how many years of quality learning they receive. This is done using an indicator called “learning-adjusted years of schooling”.

On the map, you see vast differences across the world.

In many of the world’s poorest countries, children receive less than three years of learning-adjusted schooling. In most rich countries, this is more than 10 years.

Across most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa – where the largest share of children live – the average years of quality schooling are less than 7.

3- number-of-out-of-school-children:

While most children worldwide get the opportunity to go to school, hundreds of millions still don’t.

In the chart, we see the number of children who aren’t in school across primary and secondary education.

This number was around 260 million in 2019.

Many children who attend primary school drop out and do not attend secondary school. That means many more children or adolescents are missing from secondary school than primary education.

4- gender-gap-education-levels:

Globally, until recently, boys were more likely to attend school than girls. The world has focused on closing this gap to ensure every child gets the opportunity to go to school.

Today, these gender gaps have largely disappeared. In the chart, we see the difference in the global enrollment rates for primary, secondary, and tertiary (post-secondary) education. The share of children who complete primary school is also shown.

We see these lines converging over time, and recently they met: rates between boys and girls are the same.

For tertiary education, young women are now more likely than young men to be enrolled.

Have a great analysis !

By Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

La moyenne pour 2021 était de 81.92 pour cent. La valeur la plus élevée était au Maurice: 99.04 pour cent et la valeur la plus basse était au Burkina Faso: 66.65 pour cent. Vous trouverez ci-dessous un graphique pour tous les pays où les données sont disponibles.

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for allEnrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91%, but 57 million children remain out of school.More than half of children who have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa.An estimated 50% of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas. Children in the poorest households are 4 times as likely to be out of school as children in the richest households.The world has achieved equality in primary education between girls and boys, but few countries have achieved that target at all levels of education.Among youth aged 15 to 24, the literacy rate has improved globally from 83 per cent to 91 per cent between 1990 and 2015.India has made significant progress in universalizing primary education. Enrolment and completion rates of girls in primary school have improved as are elementary completion rates. The net enrolment ratio in primary education (for both sexes) is 88%(2013-14). At the national level, male and female youth literacy rate is 94% and 92%.This map 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.

According to a study from 2020, African countries, and in particular West-African countries, have some of the shortest school attendance among female students worldwide. In Liberia, female scholars attended school on average for 2.3 years, the lowest level in Africa and globally. Niger recorded the second-lowest education participation in terms of duration, with 2.6 years.

Female adult literacy in West Africa is considerably low in some countries. Overall, Chad, Guinea, and Nigeria register the lowest literacy rates in this region. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest illiteracy rate in the world.

Determining the Sample Size for Assessing the Prevalence and Determinants of Delayed Motherhood among women of reproductive age in Five Sub-Saharan African Countries.

Note: All models are additionally adjusted for age, gender, marital status, rural/urban location, literacy level, occupation, countries and survey year.All the figures in bold have a p-value of <0.01.

The statistic shows the degree of adult literacy in China from 1982 to 2020. In 2020, the literacy rate, which is defined as people aged 15 and above who can read and write, had reached about 97.15 percent in China.

Global literacy rates

By 2020, around 86.8 percent of the world population aged 15 years and above had been able to read and write. While in developed regions this figure ranged a lot higher, only around 67 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa was literate. Countries with the lowest literacy rates are also the most underdeveloped worldwide. According to UNESCO, literacy is a human right, especially in a fast-changing and technology-driven world. In China, the literacy rate has developed from 79 percent in 1982 to 97 percent in 2020, indicating that almost one million people per year had become literate over three decades. In India, the situation was entirely different. The second most populous country in the world displayed a literacy rate of merely 76 percent in 2022.

Literacy in China

The dramatic increase in literacy in China has a lot to do with the efficacy of numerous political, economic and educational policies. In 1982, compulsory education was written into the Chinese constitution, postulating a nine-year compulsory education funded by the government. As is shown by the graph above, there was a large gender gap in literacy rate in China as of 1982. Though this gap still existed in 2020, it was narrowed down to three percent, starting from 28 percent in 1982. Since 1990, the national education policy was directed at females, especially from poor and/or minority families. Over the past years, China has achieved gender parity in primary schooling.

However, regional literacy disparities in China should not to be overlooked. Regions with a strong economic background tend to display illiteracy rates below national average. In contrast, economically underdeveloped regions have a much larger share of people who cannot read nor write. Tibet for instance, a region where 92 percent of the population belong to an ethnic minority, showed the highest illiterate rate nationwide, with around 34 percent in 2022.