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

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 2024, about 90.91 percent of men and a little less than 88.8 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.

The Adult Literacy Survey, carried out in Great Britain in 1996, was part of an international programme of surveys known as the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS).
The aim was to profile the literacy skills of adults aged 16-65 using an internationally agreed measure. The objectives were to provide data for international comparison; to provide a profile of adult literacy in Great Britain; to provide a self-assessment of literacy skills by respondents; to collect background information to examine the link between literacy and socio-economic factors such as education, employment and income.

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.

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.

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.

BackgroundThere is a lack of evidence of stakeholder perspective and understanding of physical literacy among relevant stakeholders from England. As part of research commissioned by Sport England to develop a physical literacy consensus statement for England, this study presents findings from the first national consultation with stakeholders in England.MethodsOne hundred and ninety-three individual stakeholders (50.3%) from education, community sport, national governing bodies of sport, physical activity and sport coaching sectors completed an online survey consisting of fixed item and open ended questions designed to examine their knowledge, understanding, perceptions and practices relating to physical literacy.ResultsResponses from stakeholders suggested there was confusion in use of the term physical literacy in practice and confusion regarding the definition of physical literacy. Most respondents suggested they were involved in physical literacy related activity and understood the term. However, when probed the physical literacy related activity they referred to was likely not actually physical literacy related. Understanding of the term physical literacy was inconsistent in general. Stakeholders considered the affective, social, physical and cognitive areas (domains) of learning to be most important for developing a positive relationship with movement, sport and physical activity for life.ConclusionsWhile stakeholders are aware of the term “physical literacy” and hold value of it within their practice, there remain key misconceptions relating to what physical literacy is, and debate as to whether any existing definitions truly capture the construct of physical literacy.

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.

Annual report on children's media literacy in the UK. This report provides detailed evidence on media use, attitudes and understanding among children and young people aged 5-15, as well as detailed information about the media access and use of young children aged 3-4. The report also includes findings relating to parents' views about their children's media use, and the ways that parents seek - or decide not - to monitor or limit use of different types of media. It is a reference tool for industry, stakeholders and consumers. It also provides context to the work Ofcom undertakes in furthering the interests of consumers and citizens in the markets we regulate. The Communications Act 2003 placed a responsibility on Ofcom to promote, and to carry out research in, media literacy. This report on children and parents contributes to Ofcom's fulfilment of this duty.

An anonymised data set of pre/post test results of a paired reading/peer tutoring trial in the north east of England.

This article demonstrates the utility of a new source, prison registers, for the history of literacy and education in nineteenth-century England. It focuses on two sets of prison registers from the two county gaols in Suffolk, located at Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, which contain personal information on 16,690 individuals over the period 1840 to 1878. First, the article examines the context in which personal information about prisoners was recorded and tests the data against benchmarks from other sources to prove its reliability. Second, the article employs two methods, statistical analysis and digital mapping, to study in depth the rich data on prisoners’ literacy and schooling. Finally, the article shows how the results of this analysis significantly revise our understanding of the prevalence of schooling among the labouring poor, the use of different types of schools, the role of the partially literate in the drive towards mass literacy, and the importance of life-long learning.

The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) is an annual sample survey which monitors national performance in literacy and numeracy in alternate years, for school children at P4, P7 and S2. It also provides information which will inform improvements in learning and teaching and assessment at classroom level. Source agency: Scottish Government Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: The Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN)

The number of learners achieving a Level 1 qualification in literacy Source: Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) Publisher: DCLG Floor Targets Interactive Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2006/07, 2007/08 Notes: Learning aims are given a level in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Those qualifications which count as literacy are defined in the NQF.

This dataset is about book subjects. It has 1 row and is filtered where the books is Student achievement in England : results in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy among 15-year-olds from OECD PISA 2000 study. It features 10 columns including number of authors, number of books, earliest publication date, and latest publication date.

This dataset tracks annual reading and language arts proficiency from 2011 to 2022 for England High School vs. Arkansas and England School District

This dataset tracks annual reading and language arts proficiency from 2011 to 2022 for Charles England Elementary School vs. North Carolina and Lexington City Schools

The Research Mobilities in Primary Literacy Education project (2022-2024) investigated the kinds of literacy research that teachers encounter and how literacy research moves to, among and around teachers.

The project aimed to: A. Explore ways in which research in primary literacy education (RPLE) moves, mapping against the dynamic background of contemporary public discourses of primary literacy education, taking account of both planned dissemination activities and the other unanticipated movements. B. Trace how human and digital actors combine to mobilise and mediate findings and interpretations. C. Support teachers and those involved in teachers’ professional development to engage with a wide range of RPLE in informed and critical ways, including through the development of new materials and events. D. Develop theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding research mobilities that are applicable elsewhere in education and the social sciences more broadly. E. Demonstrate effective and innovate ways of sharing research using our immediate findings and data to model and explore different approaches as the project unfolds.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Which topics, approaches, methodologies and social actors are of particular significance in the RPLE landscape in England today, and which are relatively marginalised and how?
2. Which circulation patterns can be discerned in the trajectories of RPLE evidence and interpretation and how are sociotechnical assemblages involved in these?
3. How can informed, critical engagement with RPLE by teachers be more fruitfully developed?
4. How can a creative, yet in broad terms replicable, methodology be developed for use by researchers to trace research mobilities across the social sciences?

OBJECTIVES

1.Identify and critically analyse the key discourses and social actors that influence movements of Research in Primary Literacy Education (RPLE) in England. 2.Track how examples of RPLE move to teachers through dissemination and mediation, investigating the contribution of planned communication activities, identifying shifts in meaning in RPLE and exploring any unplanned and/or unanticipated mobilisations. 3.Analyse the roles of individuals, organisations, texts and technologies in brokering research evidence linked to literacy in primary education. 4.Identify and critically analyse the role of personal, school/Trust and wider policy contexts in shaping teachers' access to, engagement with and experiences of RPLE. 5.Develop innovative models for engagement with RPLE, in partnership with teachers and educationalists. 6.Generate recommendations on mediation and engagement with RPLE for: a. teachers; b. educational leaders seeking to enhance staff engagement with RPLE (e.g. head teachers, multi-academy trust executives); c. research producers and disseminators, e.g. researchers, funders, dissemination platforms; d. research brokers, e.g. teacher educators, consultants, literacy charities, research schools, professional organisations; e. policy makers. 7.Create a replicable methodology for tracing how research discourses permeate into public and professional discourses in the social sciences.

Researchers used multiple methods including: interviews, focus groups and lifelogging with teachers, analyses of newspaper and social media and other approaches. These included: detailed interviews, lifelogging and focus groups involving 44 teachers working in a variety of settings; analysis of corpora including 426 newspaper articles and over 31600 twitter interactions; tracings of 9 examples of research/research related materials utilising a range of digital and qualitative methods.

Findings will be of interest to all those with an interest in strengthening relationships between research and education in including researchers within and outside universities, organisations that engage in research and research funding bodies. The project focused on teachers’ encounters with literacy research in the primary phase but the recommendations are also relevant to other phases, curricular subjects and aspects of teaching. The project found that: 1. Research is encountered in many ways in a variety of physical and digital spaces, driven by national, school and/or trust priorities as well as by teachers’ own interests and concerns. 2. Research findings are frequently presented in ways that make critical evaluation difficult and credibility hard to judge. 3. Teachers experience the relationship between research and practice in different ways and have different priorities, interests and concerns when they engage with research. 4. Successful mobilisation of research does not always reflect research quality and valuable research findings do not always reach the public eye. 5. The research that teachers encounter tends to relate a narrow range of topics, missing many relevant opportunities to offer additional insights.

Primary school literacy is a foundation of education and yet use of research-based evidence to inform teachers' professional decision-making in this area, while increasing, is piecemeal and varied in quality. This study explores how movements of research are significant to this pressing problem. While much has been written about how ideas move in a networked society, manifesting in concerns about fake news and the rapid, widespread circulation of ill-informed or prejudicial perspectives and practices, little is known about what happens to educational research evidence as it moves through complex and intersecting networks, movements that are complicated further by a shifting landscape for professional learning and changes in communication media facilitated by digital technologies. This study explores what happens as research evidence moves from research producers to research users, identifying the individual, organisational and technological brokers (such as literacy charities, social media influencers, algorithms and hashtags) that facilitate its movements or halt its progress, and any shifts in key messages as it moves.

We focus on literacy education in the primary phase (age 5-11) because literacy is a foundation of education and because international studies have highlighted the need for teachers to draw on a wide variety of research evidence generated through different research paradigms if literacy education is to be inclusive to all learners and fit for the 21st century. Teachers however must navigate a complex research environment, drawing on multiple sources accessed through diverse channels, often mediated by digital platforms. Against this background, research evidence can be distorted and some kinds of evidence gain greater traction than others - not necessarily in line with research merit but propelled by a proliferation of producers, strategies and channels of communication, diverse methods of uptake, and mixed messages in media discourse. There is therefore a pressing need for a better understanding of how literacy research evidence moves to teachers (or not) and what happens to it as it does so.

This study addresses this need by exploring the movements of research in primary literacy education (RPLE). It explores how multiple actors combine to mediate, broker, propel or stall research evidence, and investigates the meanings that evidence accrues or drops, the credibility it acquires (or not), and how it gains or loses momentum as this happens. The complexity of researching movements of research has led us to draw from across the social sciences in order to design effective, multi-layered methods, and we are developing our own multidisciplinary instruments to examine the interfaces of networks of individuals, organisations, communication channels and texts.

The project produced new important knowledge about the impact of movement on what is 'received' as research by teachers, and reinvigorates debate about the relationship between research and practice amongst stakeholders including educators, school leaders, policy-makers, literacy charities, teacher educators and other educational organisations. It developed new fora for enabling teachers to engage with researchers, and produced professional learning materials for use by teachers, schools and student-teachers that support a critical engagement with research that considers not just research evidence itself, but the broader networks that construct it in certain ways. These findings will also be valuable to researchers when planning dissemination activities and to the bodies, such as UKRI, that fund them. While the focus is RPLE, the study generated theoretical and methodological resources for understanding the movements of research across education and other social sciences, paving the way for a new programme of research into what we call 'research mobilities'.