UIS · Adult Literacy Rate
Adult literacy rate by country
What share of adults can read and write?
2 countries shared first place of the 124 countries compared in the 2024 edition, all at 100.0000%, and Chad last, at 30.6300%. In the middle country the figure was 92.2000%. 48 readings from before 2014 are listed but not compared.
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Part ofEducation & Knowledge
Adult literacy rate · the 2024 edition
Context statistic
2 countries share the highest value, 100.0000% — no single country is named first.
01the 2024 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the highest end of 124 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
Highest in the 2024 edition · shared
2 countries share the highest reading, 100.0000%
No single country is named first: picking one from a shared value would be a choice the data does not make.
02Every measured country
Adult literacy rate on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value — the better end.
- 30.6300–69.4000%
- 70.1500–87.6400%
- 87.8800–95.3400%
- 95.5500–98.5300%
- 98.6080–100.0000%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2014, listed but not compared (48)
- No reading in the 2024 edition
- Europe
99.3550%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 49 members
Russia99.9300%
Albania97.6800%Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Oceania
98.2990%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 21 members
Tuvalu100.0000%
Papua New Guinea87.0047%Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Asia
96.1300%
the middle country, of 39 measured · 52 members
Uzbekistan100.0000%
Afghanistan37.2700%Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Americas
94.7400%
the middle country, of 23 measured · 48 members
Argentina99.1400%
Haiti68.0100%Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Africa
70.8737%
the middle country, of 42 measured · 55 members
Mauritius94.2878%
Chad30.6300%Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Every region
18 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- Southern Europe
99.3450%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 17 members
San Marino99.9100%Albania97.6800%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- Western Asia
97.8200%
the middle country, of 15 measured · 19 members
Armenia99.8400%
Iraq84.0649%Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- South America
95.3400%
the middle country, of 11 measured · 12 members
Argentina99.1400%
Guyana85.6400%Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- South-eastern Asia
94.6487%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 11 members
Philippines98.4700%
Timor-Leste69.4000%Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Caribbean
94.0300%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 24 members
Cayman Islands98.8700%Haiti68.0100%Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Central America
88.2500%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 8 members
Panama96.2277%
Guatemala82.1100%Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Southern Asia
78.1625%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 9 members
Maldives98.2100%Afghanistan37.2700%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Eastern Africa
74.6900%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 19 members
Mauritius94.2878%
Somalia54.1200%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Middle Africa
68.5000%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 9 members
Gabon88.8600%Chad30.6300%Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Western Africa
51.3800%
the middle country, of 15 measured · 16 members
Cabo Verde88.4700%
Niger35.6100%Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- Central Asia
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan100.0000%
Turkmenistan99.9000%Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Asia
3 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: China, Macau, Mongolia.
Mongolia98.6400%
Macau96.5400%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Eastern Europe
4 of 10 measured — too few for a middle: Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Russia.
Russia99.9300%
Romania99.1600%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Melanesia
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu.
Vanuatu87.9600%Papua New Guinea87.0047%Highest and lowest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
4 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau.
Palau99.8448%
Marshall Islands95.7629%Highest and lowest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
3 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
Tunisia86.2500%
Morocco64.2600%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- Polynesia
4 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu.
Tuvalu100.0000%
Samoa97.9900%Highest and lowest reading in Polynesia.
- Southern Africa
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa.
South Africa91.1500%
Namibia87.6400%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
03The whole field at once
The spread
124 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 92.2000%; a quarter are above 97.7150%, and a quarter below 72.5875%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 172 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. “=” marks a position shared with another country. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Each row’s reading year matters. Some readings are decades old and describe a country that may have changed a great deal since; readings more than ten years older than the edition are listed but not compared.
Showing 25 of 172 countries
Values for the 2024 edition.
05In this edition
Adult literacy rate in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
Reached 2 times by 2 countries — shared, so no holder is named
100.0000%
Adults 15+ who can read and write (%)
Lowest reading
30.6300%
Adults 15+ who can read and write (%)
06By sex
Inside the number
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) also publishes separate female and male readings. The gap between them, where both exist.
Of the 123 countries with both readings, the female reading is higher in 27, the male reading in 90, and they are equal in 6. The widest gaps each way:
48 countries' readings are too old to compare and are left out; they are still listed under Every country.
07The measure
About adult literacy rate
The adult literacy rate is the share of people aged 15 and over who can read and write a short, simple statement about their everyday life. It comes from censuses and household surveys compiled by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
What the number is: Adults 15+ who can read and write (%).
08Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Education & Knowledge, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Moves with
Where adult literacy rate is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Youth Literacy RateUIS · 124 countries in commonρ 0.91
- Inequality-adjusted Human Development IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 108 countries in commonρ 0.90
- Mean Years of SchoolingUNDP Human Development Report Office · 120 countries in commonρ 0.89
Moves against
Where adult literacy rate is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Coefficient of Human InequalityUNDP Human Development Report Office · 108 countries in commonρ −0.90
- Global Multidimensional Poverty IndexOPHI · 87 countries in commonρ −0.86
- Gender Inequality IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 111 countries in commonρ −0.82
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 322 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
09Analysis
Charts and analysis on adult literacy rate
10Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
11Questions
Adult literacy rate: questions and answers
Which country has the highest adult literacy rate?
2 countries share the highest reading, 100.0000%, among the 124 compared in the 2024 edition, so no single country is named.
Which country has the lowest adult literacy rate?
Chad, at 30.6300%, among the 124 countries compared in the 2024 edition.
How many countries does the Adult Literacy Rate cover?
124 in the 2024 edition, and 172 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average adult literacy rate?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 124 compared in the 2024 edition, the figure was 92.2000%.
Is this UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)’s own ranking?
No. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Adult Literacy Rate published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2024.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), under CC BY-SA 4.0. From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data API, latest available reading per country. Female and male rates are stored beside the headline. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
12Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Adult Literacy Rate — UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data API, latest available reading per country. Female and male rates are stored beside the headline.
Newest edition
Report year 2024Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0, checked 2026-09-05.
How this page reads the numbers
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2014 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Adult literacy rate by country: Adult Literacy Rate, data from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/adult-literacy