Literacy Rate – The percentage of people who have basic reading and writing skills (not maths)

To remember the meaning of the term Literacy Rate, use the following mnemonic:

She could literally rate (literacy rate) her whole class for basic reading and writing skills after giving them a simple test.

Global literacy levels have risen dramatically in the last couple of centuries. In 1820, only 12% of the people in the world could read and write. Today, the figure has almost reversed: in 2016, only 14% of the world population remained illiterate.

However, despite improvements, big challenges remain. The poorest countries in the world still have large parts of the population that are illiterate.

In Niger, for example, the overall literacy rate is only 19%.

In developed countries, the literacy rate averages 99.2%.

You might be surprised to learn that one of the countries with the highest literacy rate (100%, as confirmed by a census carried out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is North Korea. Others scoring 100% are Andorra, Greenland and Uzbekistan.