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Dataset · World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Learning Poverty

Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation · 125 countries · 5 measures

Learning poverty is the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple story — counting both children who are out of school and pupils who are in school but below the minimum reading level. The World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics built it as a single warning light for whether a school system is teaching the most basic skill of all.

This site holds one edition, Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation, read from World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics’ own data and stored exactly as published.

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Learning Poverty · the file

Newest
Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation
Held
1 edition · 125 rows
Licence
CC BY 4.0

01One edition

Every edition

Newest first. Each opens the full table for that edition, and each downloads as a CSV.

Every edition of Learning Poverty held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
EditionCountriesChangeReadDownload
Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation125—September 26, 2026CSV

Every edition in one file, one row per country per edition: learning-poverty-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

028 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

10-year-olds who cannot read a simple text (%)is built fromPrimary-age children out of school (%)Pupils below minimum reading proficiency (%)

Every column in the newest file of Learning Poverty: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2023DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—1250
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—1250
10-year-olds who cannot read a simple text (%)learning_povertyHeadlineThe headline figure: 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple text (%).Number · up to 16 decimals2.331Ireland98.504Zambiamiddle 34.0241250
Primary-age children out of school (%)schooling_deprivationPart of the headlineShare of children of primary-school age who are not in school, in %.Number · up to 16 decimals0.0003 share it63.196DR Congomiddle 3.1551230
Pupils below minimum reading proficiency (%)learning_deprivationPart of the headlineShare of pupils at the end of primary school who fall below the minimum reading proficiency level, in %.Number · up to 16 decimals0.7974South Korea98.2424Zambiamiddle 32.56741250
FemalefemaleWomenThe same measure, for women.Number · up to 16 decimals2.031Luxembourg100.000Nigermiddle 21.7368243
MalemaleMenThe same measure, for men.Number · up to 16 decimals2.45Ireland98.13Laosmiddle 28.388243
Reference yearreference_yearReading yearThe year this country’s reading describes. Readings from different years sit side by side.Year—160

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the worse result.

03125 countries across every edition

Who is covered

How many countries each edition holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each edition of Learning Poverty, by continent.
2023
Africa29
Americas20
Asia38
Europe36
Oceania2
All125

One edition, covering 125 countries.

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method
  1. 1 · Publisher

    World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics

  2. 2 · Their file

    Learning Poverty (readings to 2023)

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 26, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.
  4. 4 · Stored as

    1 file, one per edition

  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

Precision

The headline is stored to 16 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

From World Bank Data360 (Learning Poverty Global Database), each country's most recent reading. The two parts of the headline — children out of school and pupils below minimum reading proficiency — are stored beside it, with female and male rates where published.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 26, 2026

CC BY 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed

Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.

A credit line

Source: World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Learning Poverty, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Learning Poverty, Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/learning-poverty

The publisher’s own citation: World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Learning Poverty Global Database. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

Learning Poverty: questions and answers

What is the Learning Poverty?

Learning poverty is the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple story — counting both children who are out of school and pupils who are in school but below the minimum reading level. The World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics built it as a single warning light for whether a school system is teaching the most basic skill of all.

Which editions of the Learning Poverty can I download?

One: Learning Poverty, 2023 compilation, as a CSV file.

Does World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics rank countries on it?

No. World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to World Bank Group and UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The licence text is linked on this page.

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