IBRD only - Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24)

Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) in IBRD only was 95.86 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 45 years was 95.86 in 2020, while its lowest value was 67.80 in 1975.

Definition: Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (http://uis.unesco.org/)

See also:

Year Value
1975 67.80
1976 67.95
1977 68.38
1978 69.61
1979 70.83
1980 72.04
1981 73.15
1982 74.42
1983 75.23
1984 76.29
1985 77.21
1986 78.06
1987 79.21
1988 79.67
1989 80.28
1990 80.96
1991 81.49
1992 82.13
1993 82.52
1994 83.06
1995 83.63
1996 84.16
1997 85.84
1998 86.53
1999 87.03
2000 87.53
2001 88.06
2002 88.74
2003 89.42
2004 90.03
2005 90.03
2006 90.61
2007 91.30
2008 92.01
2009 92.23
2010 92.42
2011 92.83
2012 93.59
2013 94.01
2014 94.54
2015 94.57
2016 95.15
2017 95.48
2018 95.34
2019 95.61
2020 95.86

Development Relevance: Literacy rate is an outcome indicator to evaluate educational attainment. This data can predict the quality of future labor force and can be used in ensuring policies for life skills for men and women. It can be also used as a proxy instrument to see the effectiveness of education system; a high literacy rate suggests the capacity of an education system to provide a large population with opportunities to acquire literacy skills. The accumulated achievement of education is fundamental for further intellectual growth and social and economic development, although it doesn't necessarily ensure the quality of education. Literate women implies that they can seek and use information for the betterment of the health, nutrition and education of their household members. Literate women are also empowered to play a meaningful role.

Limitations and Exceptions: In practice, literacy is difficult to measure. Estimating literacy rates requires census or survey measurements under controlled conditions. Many countries report the number of literate people from self-reported data. Some use educational attainment data as a proxy but apply different lengths of school attendance or levels of completion. Ant there is a trend among recent national and international surveys toward using a direct reading test of literacy skills. Because definitions and methods of data collection differ across countries, data should be used cautiously.

Other Notes: Data retrieved via API in March 2019. For detailed information on the observation level (e.g. National Estimation, UIS Estimation, or Category not applicable), please visit UIS.Stat (http://data.uis.unesco.org/).

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Literacy statistics for most countries cover the population ages 15 and older, but some include younger ages or are confined to age ranges that tend to inflate literacy rates. The youth literacy rate for ages 15-24 reflects recent progress in education. It measures the accumulated outcomes of primary education over the previous 10 years or so by indicating the proportion of the population who have passed through the primary education system and acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills. Generally, literacy also encompasses numeracy, the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations. Data on literacy are compiled by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics based on national censuses and household surveys and, for countries without recent literacy data, using the Global Age-Specific Literacy Projection Model (GALP). For detailed information, see www.uis.unesco.org.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Education Indicators

Sub-Topic: Outcomes