Estimated Literacy Rate by country

What this measures

Higher share of adults who can read and write; lower share of adults who can read and write.

Unit: %. Adult literacy rate, ages 15+.

Methodology

This is an OurBlueDot derived indicator, not a UNESCO-only layer. Every country-year value is classified as reported or estimated, with a confidence label. Tier 1 is World Bank World Development Indicators SE.ADT.LITR.ZS: adult literacy rate, population ages 15 and above, both sexes. The original producer is the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS); World Bank WDI is the import path. Direct UIS API reuse is not used. Literacy means being able to read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement about everyday life. UNESCO/WDI values can originate from censuses, surveys, or UIS calculations including GALP. WDI does not provide a usable observation-status flag, so those published values are labelled reported rather than split into survey versus GALP. The 2024 map is a latest-available snapshot: a native 2024 UNESCO value, a labelled carry-forward of an earlier UNESCO observation with its observation year, or an OurBlueDot estimate. Years 2000-2023 show only native UNESCO country-years. Snapshot carries are omitted from country history so earlier observations are not turned into a synthetic 2024 time-series point. Tier 2 applies only where no UNESCO literacy observation exists in 2000-2024. The estimate is WDI SE.PRM.CUAT.ZS, educational attainment at least completed primary among people aged 25+, used only when that latest value is at least 95 percent and the observation year is 2015 or later. The published attainment share is used as the estimate; OECD countries are not assigned 99 percent. Primary completion is a proxy for basic literacy, not a literacy survey, and covers ages 25+ rather than 15+. Confidence is high when the share is at least 99 percent and the year is 2020 or later, medium when at least 97 percent, and low when 95-97 percent. OurBlueDot does not interpolate missing years, invent values, assign 99 percent to all OECD countries, convert PIAAC scores, scrape WorldAtlas or World Population Review, or use CIA World Factbook fills in this vintage. Pre-2000 UNESCO literacy points are not used as current estimates. Countries without a defensible UNESCO value or qualifying attainment proxy remain no data. Missing data does not imply zero literacy. The metric is not youth literacy, male or female literacy, PIAAC functional-literacy scores, mean years of schooling, or a historical OWID literacy estimate. 2025 is omitted because WDI currently publishes that year as empty. Country rows are joined by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3; regional aggregates and territories outside UN-193, including WDI entities PSE and XKX, are excluded. Map ranks are one combined comparable-sample ranking of reported and estimated values among currently loaded countries (rank 1 is the highest adult literacy estimate), with origin labels. Higher values are generally more favorable for basic reading and writing skills; this is not a complete measure of educational quality or functional literacy.