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.

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

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.

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 .

Actual value and historical data chart for World Literacy Rate Adult Total Percent Of People Ages 15 And Above

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 .

The United Kingdom: Female 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 .

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

This statistic shows the share of the population reading as a free time activity in England, by age. According to the survey, conducted between ********** and **********, around **** percent of 16 to 24 year olds spent some part of their free time reading.

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.

Developments In Literacy Trust UK Activity File

Headteachers from local schools were invited to take part in the study. We then asked the school leadership to give their approval for us to conduct the research in their school. Following approval, parents were informed about the study, and given an opportunity to opt their child out of the assessments. Children attending participating schools, whose parents have not opted out of the study, were then invited to participate and given information about the study in age-appropriate terms, and asked them whether they want to take part. We only tested children who actively consented to take part and it was made clear that they could stop at any time. All children from the appropriate year group (Reception, Year 1 or Year 2) were invited to take part. No child was excluded unless their parents opted them out or if the child did not actively consent. Children who had difficulty understanding/ communicating were allowed to participate to the best of their ability and praised for their participation, as normal. The tests were designed for use with children at all levels of ability and verbal instructions were kept to a minimum. The assessments were conducted on a one-to-one basis in a quiet area close to the child’s classroom. Research Assistants who were experienced in working with children conducted the assessments. Research Assistants were trained to work with each child on a one-to-one basis, using the exact same verbal instructions and procedure for each child, praising the child for their efforts, regardless of their performance. Each phase of data collection was conducted over a three month period, requiring up to 6 sessions of approximately 20mins per child. The assessments we used were a combination of standardised tests of reading, memory and nonverbal reasoning plus bespoke measures. These measures are described in Cunningham et al. (2015). Children responded either by articulating the speech sounds, or through key presses which enabled them to repeat back the sounds. Laptops were used to present the stimuli through headphones and allow responses to be directly recorded onto a spreadsheet. In order to avoid causing discomfort, the tests were designed so that the initial material was easy, progressing to more difficult material, and tests that include a large amount of difficult material were discontinued once the child made a certain number of errors (see Cunningham, et al., 2015).

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.

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.

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. We examined whether the transition to secondary school and whether participant level characteristics such as SES affected their vocabulary and reading development during this time.
For data collected from this sample between 2011-2016 see: 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852671