World - Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above)

Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) in World was 83.30 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 44 years was 83.30 in 2020, while its lowest value was 58.42 in 1976.

Definition: Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above 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
1976 58.42
1977 58.62
1978 59.18
1979 59.73
1980 60.09
1981 60.81
1982 61.38
1983 62.05
1984 62.72
1985 63.31
1986 63.86
1987 64.54
1988 66.59
1989 67.13
1990 67.47
1991 68.19
1992 68.66
1993 69.14
1994 69.67
1995 70.20
1996 70.73
1997 73.56
1998 74.71
1999 75.16
2000 75.34
2001 75.79
2002 76.22
2003 76.81
2004 77.29
2005 77.15
2006 77.82
2007 78.11
2008 78.66
2009 79.07
2010 79.80
2011 80.25
2012 80.70
2013 80.94
2014 81.53
2015 81.77
2016 82.31
2017 82.64
2018 82.72
2019 83.02
2020 83.30

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