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.
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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 .
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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 .
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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.
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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 .
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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.
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.
The share of young people aged eight to 18 years old in the United Kingdom who read on a daily basis fell to 18.7 percent in 2025. Back in 2015, the percentage who read everyday was over 40 percent.
Statistical first release containing national and local authority level results for the early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) assessments in England for 2013.
The release includes:
The main points from this release are:
The new profile was introduced in September 2012 and the first assessments took place in the summer of 2013. The new profile’s ‘emerging’, ‘expected’ and ‘exceeding’ scale are very different to the previous profile’s 117 point scale and the number of early learning goals has been reduced. This will lead to a break in the time series as the results will not be comparable between 2012 and 2013.
Chris Noble
01325 735 421
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Pupils from the Chinese ethnic group were most likely to meet both the expected and higher standards in reading, writing and maths in 2018/19.
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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.
Comprehensive dataset of 42 Literacy programs in United Kingdom as of June, 2025. Includes verified contact information (email, phone), geocoded addresses, customer ratings, reviews, business categories, and operational details. Perfect for market research, lead generation, competitive analysis, and business intelligence. Download a complimentary sample to evaluate data quality and completeness.
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study is an international survey of the educational achievement of the equivalent of year 5 pupils across the world organised by the IEA. A total of 49 countries participated in PIRLS 2011. The survey included an assessment of pupils' reading ability, a survey of pupils' background characteristics and attitudes towards school and learning, and a survey of their teachers including their qualifications, instructional time dedicated to various topics, and the school environment for teaching and learning.
The Department owns the data collected from students in England in the most recent study 2011 and will also hold matched data files of the PIRLS data with pupils' NPD records once the contract with the national survey administrators expires.
Small area estimation modelling methods have been applied to the 2011 Skills for Life survey data in order to generate local level area estimates of the number and proportion of adults (aged 16-64 years old) in England living in households with defined skill levels in:
The number and proportion of adults in households who do not speak English as a first language are also included.
Two sets of small area estimates are provided for 7 geographies; middle layer super output areas (MSOAs), standard table wards, 2005 statistical wards, 2011 council wards, 2011 parliamentary constituencies, local authorities, and local enterprise partnership areas.
Regional estimates have also been provided, however, unlike the other geographies, these estimates are based on direct survey estimates and not modelled estimates.
The files are available as both Excel and csv files – the user guide explains the estimates and modelling approach in more detail.
To find the estimate for the proportion of adults with entry level 1 or below literacy in the Manchester Central parliamentary constituency, you need to:
It is estimated that 8.1% of adults aged 16-64 in Manchester Central have entry level or below literacy. The Credible Intervals for this estimate are 7.0 and 9.3% at the 95 per cent level. This means that while the estimate is 8.1%, there is a 95% likelihood that the actual value lies between 7.0 and 9.3%.
<p class="gem-c-attachment_metadata"><span class="gem-c-attachment_attribute">MS Excel Spreadsheet</span>, <span class="gem-c-attachment_attribute">14.5 MB</span></p>
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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.
This statistic displays enjoyment of reading among young people in the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2018, by ethnic background. Among school children aged eight to 18 years, children from White backgrounds enjoyed reading less than young people from other ethnic backgrounds. In 2019, 64.7 percent of children from Asian ethnic backgrounds reported to enjoy reading.
Vocabulary knowledge is crucial for accessing the school curriculum and for performance on school assessments. It is also strongly influenced by a child’s exposure to language in the home and disadvantages in knowledge are apparent at school-entry. Vocabulary knowledge has a lasting influence on academic achievement that persists into secondary school and disadvantages are only partially ameliorated by teacher-directed instruction. Reading ability is also crucial for academic achievement, but contrasts with vocabulary as a skill in which initial disadvantages tend to fade over time. We followed primary-aged pupils from the Aston Literacy Project (a large longitudinal study of reading from school-entry to late-primary) during the critical but under-researched transition to secondary school. This data set includes information on children’s vocabulary, word reading and reading comprehension at the and of primary school and the beginning of secondary school. The data were used to examine reading and vocabulary development across the primary-secondary school transition.
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.
The tables provide 2012 information on pupil residency-based small area pupil attainment (early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) and key stages 1, 2, 4 and 5) broken down by gender, free school meal (FSM) eligibility (key stages 2 and 4 only) and ethnicity (key stages 2 and 4 only). The tables also provide information on pupil residency-based pupil absence broken down by gender for the 2011 to 2012 academic year.
The key points from the latest release are:
at EYFSP, girls consistently perform better than boys in almost all LADs
at key stage 1, key stage 2, key stage 4 and key stage 5, girls also outperform boys in all but a small number of LADs
overall, all other pupils perform significantly better than FSM pupils in all areas of the country, this performance gap can be seen at both key stage 2 and key stage 4
Chinese pupils continue to have the highest levels of attainment in all regions for key stage 2 and key stage 4
black pupils have some of the lowest levels of attainment across the country at these 2 key stages
there is smaller variation across the regions for pupils in primary schools with the Yorkshire and the Humber having the highest level of persistent absence and the South East the lowest
Download formats http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadHome.do?m=0&s=1371649586709&enc=1&nsjs=true&nsck=false&nssvg=false&nswid=1276" class="govuk-link">www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk
Additional information on maps above:
map: early years foundation stage profile by local authority district - percentage of pupils in all schools and early years’ settings achieving a good level of development by local authority district (of pupil residence), 2012
map: early years foundation stage profile by middle layer super output area - percentage of pupils in all schools and early years’ settings achieving a good level of development by middle layer super output area (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 1 average point score by local authority district - average point score of pupils in maintained schools by local authority district (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 1 average point score by middle layer super output area - average point score of pupils in maintained schools by middle layer super output area (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 2 by local authority district - percentage of pupils in maintained schools achieving level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths combined by local authority district (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 2 by middle layer super output area - percentage of pupils in maintained schools achieving level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths combined by middle layer super output area (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 4 - 5+ GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and mathematics by local authority district - percentage of pupils in maintained schools achieving 5 A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and mathematics GCSEs by local authority district (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 4 - 5+ GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and mathematics by middle layer super output area - percentage of pupils in maintained schools achieving 5 A* to C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and mathematics GCSEs by middle layer super output area (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 4 English Baccalaureate by local authority district - percentage of pupils in maintained schools achieving the English Baccalaureate by local authority district (of pupil residence), 2012
map: key stage 5 - 2 or more passes by local authority district - percentage of students achieving 2 or more passes of A level equivalent size in maintained schools and further education sector colleges by local authority district (of student residence), 2012
map: key stage 5 avera
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.