Literacy

Changes in publishing and copyright relate to the ways that literacy rates rose during this period. Read this data-driven piece about the advances in the country's literacy rates during the American Renaissance.

Literacy is a key skill and a key measure of a population's education. In this entry, we discuss historical trends, as well as recent developments in literacy.

From a historical perspective, literacy levels for the world population have risen drastically in the last couple of centuries. While only 12% of the people in the world could read and write in 1820, today the share has reversed: only 17% of the world population remains illiterate.

Despite large improvements in the expansion of basic education, and the continuous reduction of education inequalities, there are substantial challenges ahead. The poorest countries in the world, where basic education is most likely to be a binding constraint for development, still have very large segments of the population who are illiterate. In Niger, for example, the literacy rate of the youth (15-24 years) is only 36.5%.

 

I. Empirical View

I.1 Historical Perspective

Global literacy has grown substantially in the last two centuries

While the earliest forms of written communication date back to about 3,500-3,000 BCE, literacy remained for centuries a very restricted technology closely associated with the exercise of power. It was only until the Middle Ages that book production started growing and literacy among the general population slowly started becoming important in the Western World.1 In fact, while the ambition of universal literacy in Europe was a fundamental reform born from the Enlightenment, it took centuries for it to happen. It was only in the 19th and 20th centuries that rates of literacy approached universality in early-industrialized countries.

The following visualization presents estimates of world literacy for the period 1800-2014. As we can see, literacy rates grew constantly but rather slowly until the beginning of the twentieth century. And the rate of growth really climbed after the middle of the 20th century, when the expansion of basic education became a global priority.

Graph of Illiterate vs Literate World Population Over Time

When did literacy start growing in Europe?

The following visualization shows the spread of literacy in Europe since the 15th century, based on estimates from Buringh and Van Zanden (2009)2. As it can be seen, the rising levels of education in Europe foreshadowed the emergence of modern societies.

Particularly fast improvements in literacy took place across Northwest Europe in the period 1600-1800. As we discuss below, widespread literacy is considered a legacy of the Age of Enlightenment.

Literacy rates around the world from the 15th century to present – Our World in Data, with data from various sources

Graph of literacy rates around the world over time

The ambition of universal literacy in Europe was a reform born of the Enlightenment

We have already pointed out that Northwest Europe made significant improvements in literacy in the period 1600-1800. Here we use historical estimates from England – a country that was very much at the center of the development of modernity – to show how the process towards universal literacy took place. Specifically, the following graph from Clark (2008)4 shows how modernization – characterized by science, technological progress, freedom, and tolerance – was enabled by improving the education of ever-larger shares of the population. It also shows how this process of expansion led to a reduction in education gender inequality.

Literacy in England, 1580-1920 – Clark (2008)5

Graph of literacy in England over time

In the US, the expansion of literacy helped reduce within-country inequalities

The expansion of literacy in early-industrialized countries helped reduce within-country inequalities. In the preceding visualization, we showed that England virtually closed literacy gender gaps by 1900. Here we provide evidence of literacy gaps across races in the US.

The following visualization shows illiteracy rates by race for the period 1870-1979. As we can see, in order to reach near-universal levels of literacy, the US had to close the race gap. This was eventually achieved around 1980.

Percentage of persons 14 years old and over in the US who were illiterate by race, 1870-1979 – Our World in Data, with data from NCES6

Graph of the percentage of people over 14 who are illiterate, by race

The global expansion of literacy has helped reduce inequalities both within and across countries

Here we want to provide evidence of how inequality in literacy, specifically, has been going down. The following visualization shows literacy by age group for different country groups. The left panel corresponds to 1980, and the right panel to 1995.

We can see that all regions made substantial progress across the board – so the series in 1995 are much more compressed towards the top than in 1980.

We can also see that younger generations are progressively better educated than older generations. And it is particularly promising that this intergenerational change is happening especially quickly in the least educated regions of our world: notice how the slopes of the lines in the least educated countries become progressively steeper. We come back to an analysis of intergenerational literacy gaps below.

In Sub-Saharan Africa in 1995, for example, the literacy rate for the youngest population group was more than three times higher than that for the oldest population group. It may seem obvious, but it is still worth pointing out that in all the statistics shown here we have never seen a reversal of this positive development.

Literacy by age group for different country groups, 1980 and 1995 – UNESCO7

 

I.2 Recent Developments

Latin America has made huge improvements in literacy in the last century

As pointed out above, Europe pioneered the expansion of basic education – but global literacy rates only started really climbing in the second half of the 20th century, when the expansion of basic education became a global priority. Here we present evidence of important recent achievements in Latin America, where literacy has dramatically increased in the past century.

As it can be seen, many nations have gained 40-50 percentage points in literacy during this period.

Despite these improvements, however, there is still a wide disparity between nations. Here you can see that, at the turn of the 21st century, half of the population in poor countries such as Haiti remains illiterate. This motivates the next visualization, where we discuss cross-country heterogeneity in more detail.

Adult illiteracy rates in Latin America, 1900-2000 – Our World in Data, with data from OxLAD8

Graph of adult illiteracy rates in Latin America over time

Global literacy is higher than ever – but important challenges remain

The following interactive map shows literacy rates around the world, using recent estimates published in the CIA Factbook. As it can be seen, all countries outside Africa (with the exception of Afghanistan) have literacy rates above 50%.

Despite progress in the long run, however, large inequalities remain, notably between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. In Burkina Faso, Niger, and South Sudan – the African countries at the bottom of the rank – literacy rates are still below 30%.

Chart of literacy rate by country

In most countries, there are large generational literacy gaps favoring the young

To assess the extent to which progress can be expected in the years to come, it is convenient to break down literacy estimates by age groups. The following map, using data from UNESCO, shows such estimates for most countries in the world.

As it can be seen, in the majority of nations there is a large difference in literacy rates across generations (you can change the map to show literacy rates for different groups by clicking on the corresponding buttons at the top).

These large differences across generations point to a global trend: the high literacy rate among the youth indicates that as time passes, the literacy rate for the overall population will continue to increase.

World maps of the literacy rate by age group – Our World in Data, with data from UNESCO9

Chart of literacy rates of youth and the elderly

Northern Africa and the Middle East have drastically improved literacy in just one generation

We highlighted above the fact that most low and middle-income countries feature large differences in literacy rates across generations. The visualization below shows specifically how remarkably large these differences are in Northern Africa and the Middle East. Using UNESCO data, these maps show that in many countries in these regions, only less than a third of the older generation is literate – while in contrast, more than 90% of the younger generation is literate.

The following scatter plot emphasizes the point already made. As you can see, younger generations are more likely to be literate than older generations around the world – but the largest gaps correspond mostly to countries in North Africa and the Middle East (these are the countries that are furthest on the top left).

Literacy rates of the younger population (15-24 years) versus literacy rates of the older population (65+) – Our World in Data using data from UNESCO10

Graph of literacy rates for youth vs. the elderly across the world

 

II. Correlates, Determinants and Consequences

The visualization below shows, in two panels, a side-by-side comparison of long-term trends in school attendance and literacy.

We can see that in 1870 only one in four people in the world attended school, and this meant that only one in five were able to read. And global inequalities in access to education were very large.

Today, in contrast, the global estimates of literacy and school attendance are above 80%, and the inequality between world regions – while still existing – is much lower.

We can see that two centuries ago only a small elite of the world population had the ability to read and write – the best estimate is that 12% of the world population was literate. Over the course of the 19th century, global literacy more than doubled. And over the course of the 20th century, the world achieved rapid progress in education. More than 4 out of 5 people are now able to read. Young generations are better educated than ever before.

Graph of education rates across the world over time

 

III. Data Quality & Definitions

III.1 Definitions and measurement today

According to a 1958 UNESCO resolution, literacy is defined as the ability to both read and write a short, simple statement about one's own life. Literacy rates are determined by literacy questions in a census or sample survey of a population, in standardized tests of literacy, or via extrapolation from statistics about school enrollment and educational attainment11.

III.2 Measurement and estimation of historical literacy rates

Statistics of literacy rates for recent decades are published by statistical offices. For earlier periods, historians have to reconstruct data from other sources. The most common method is to calculate the share of those people who could sign official documents (e.g. court documents). Dittmar (2012)12 notes that this only gives a lower bound of the estimate because the number of people who could read was higher than the number who could write. Allen (2003)13 takes a different approach and bases his estimates of literacy levels for early Europe on the level of urbanization.14

 

IV. Data Sources

CIA Factbook
  • Data: Literacy rate for the entire population
  • Geographical coverage: Global – by country
  • Timespan: 2011 or most recent earlier estimate (in some cases going back several decades)
  • Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2103rank.html
UNESCO
  • Data: Literacy rate (for youths (15-24), adults (15+) and the elderly population (65+))
  • Geographical coverage: Global – by country
  • Timespan: Since 1975 – scattered and far from annual data
  • Available at: It is online here, and it is visualized here.
  • The UNDP's Human Development Report data is here, and UNICEF publishes data on literacy rate here.
  • Older older publications including data on literacy rates are:
    UNESCO (2002) – Estimated Illiteracy Rate and Illiterate Population Aged 15 Years and Older by Country, 1970–2015, Paris.
    UNESCO (1970) – Literacy 1967–1969 Progress Achieved in Literacy Throughout the World. Paris (1970)
    UNESCO (1957) – World illiteracy at mid-century – A Statistical Study, Paris.
    UNESCO (1953) – Progress of literacy in various countries – A Preliminary Statistical Study of Available Census Data since 1900, Paris.

World Bank – World Development Indicators
  • Data: Literacy rate
  • Geographical coverage: Global – by country (not by region). There are almost no data for rich industrialized countries – only for developing countries.
  • Timespan: Since 1975 – scattered
  • Available at:
    • Annual data on 'Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)' – going back to 1975
    • Annual data on 'Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24)' – going back to 1975 (this data is also published for males and females separately)
  • This data is taken from UNESCO.

Peter Flora's data
  • Data: Literacy rate
  • Geographical coverage: Mostly Western Europe
  • Timespan: 19th and 20th century
  • Available at: Two important publications are: Peter Flora (1983 & 1987) – State, Economy, and Society in Western Europe 1815–1975: A Data Handbook in two Volumes. Frankfurt, New York: Campus; London: Macmillan Press; Chicago: St. James Press and Peter Flora (1973) – Historical processes of social mobilization: urbanization and literacy, 1850–1965. In S.N. Eisenstadt, S. Rokkan (Eds.), Building States and Nations: Models and Data Resources, Sage, London, pp. 213–258.

OxLAD – Oxford Latin American Economic History Database
  • Data: Illiteracy rate (percent of adult population)
  • Geographical coverage: Latin American countries
  • Timespan: Since 1900
  • Available at: Online here

OECD Skills Outlook
  • Data: Measures of numeracy and literacy competence
  • Geographical coverage: 24 OECD countries
  • Timespan: no time series dimension – only 2012
  • Available at: Online here
  • Presents the initial results of the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)

Footnotes

  1. An overview of the academic literature on the historical origins and spread of literacy can be found in Easton, P. (2014). Sustaining Literacy in Africa: Developing a Literate Environment. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Paris, France.

  2. Buringh, E., & Van Zanden, J. L. (2009). Charting the "Rise of the West": Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A long-term perspective from the sixth through eighteenth centuries. The Journal of Economic History, 69(02), 409-445.

  3. All data before 1800 are taken from Buringh, E., & Van Zanden, J. L. (2009). Charting the "Rise of the West": Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A long-term perspective from the sixth through eighteenth centuries. The Journal of Economic History.

    Observations before 1800 are plotted at the midpoint of the given time range (1475 refers to 1451–1500, 1550 refers to 1501-1600 etc.).

    Data for 1820 and 1870 (except for the US) are taken from Broadberry and O'Rourke (2010) – The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe: Volume 1, 1700-1870.

    The data for world average literacy are from van Zanden, J.L., et al. (eds.) (2014), How Was Life?: Global Well-being since 1820, OECD Publishing. Online here.

    All data for the US (referring to the entire population) are taken from the National Center for Education Statistics. Online here.

    All data for all countries after 2000 are taken from the CIA World Factbook and refer to both sexes (15 and older).

    OxLAD – Oxford Latin American Economic History Data Base. It is online here.

  4. Clark, G. (2008). A farewell to alms: a brief economic history of the world. Princeton University Press.

  5. Source: Clark, G. (2008). A farewell to alms: a brief economic history of the world. Princeton University Press.

    The reported underlying sources are as follows: for 1750s–1920s, Schofield – 1973 (men and women who sign marriage resisters); for the north 1630s–1740s, Houston – 1982 (witnesses who sign court depositions); for Norwich Diocese, 1580s–1690s from Cressy – 1980 (witnesses who sign ecclesiastical court declarations)

  6. Source: National Center for Education Statistics. From the original source we have excluded some years to have equal time differences on the x-axis (and interpolated the values for 1950), but the data is shown in the expandable table below and at the linked source.

  7. The source for these graphs is Compendium of Statistics on Illiteracy (1995)

  8. This data is taken from OxLAD – Oxford Latin American Economic History Data Base.

    The source notes the following underlying sources: Illiteracy rate (percent of adult population): Figures for 1900-1960 were supplied by Shane and Barbara Hunt, data for 1880, 1910, 1930, and 1990 interpolated. Other figures are census results for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960. Figures for 1970-1999 are from World Bank (2001). Figure for 2000 is from UNDP (2002).

  9. The data is taken from the UNESCO statistics. The data refers to both genders and to the latest available data in the time between 2000 and 2012.

  10. The data is taken from the UNESCO statistics. The data refers to both genders and to the latest available data in the time between 2000 and 2012.

  11. UNESCO 'Recommendation Concerning the International Standardization of Educational Statistics', Records of the General Conference, tenth session, Paris, 1958: Resolutions

  12. Dittmar, J. (2011). The welfare impact of a new good: The printed book. Department of Economics, American University.

  13. Allen, R. C. (2003). Progress and poverty in early modern Europe. The Economic History Review, 56(3), 403-443.

  14. Buringh and Zanden (2009) – referenced before – compare their estimates with those from Allen (2003) and find only small discrepancies.


Source: Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, https://ourworldindata.org/literacy/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Last modified: Thursday, February 18, 2021, 2:30 PM