Education
Adult literacy
SE.ADT.LITR.ZS · %
Annual series published by the World Bank, compared across United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, United States, China, Canada, Mexico. The chart carries the trajectory, the table carries the year by year figures, and the definition at the foot of the page is the World Bank's own, quoted as it stands.
- Latest value, Italy
- 99.35%2019
- Period covered
- 1981 - 20194 annual values
- Highest of the compared countries
- 99.7%Spain, 2021
- Lowest of the compared countries
- 95.55%Mexico, 2024
8 countries compared, that is the maximum. Remove one to add another.
Latest known valuesorted by value
Spain99.7%2021
Italy99.35%2019
China96.74%2020
Mexico95.55%2024
Year by year values
Click the Year header to reverse the order. An empty cell means the World Bank publishes nothing for that country that year.
| Italy | Spain | China | Mexico | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 95.55% | |||
| 2023 | 95.83% | |||
| 2022 | 95.12% | |||
| 2021 | 99.7% | 95.69% | ||
| 2020 | 98.59% | 96.74% | 95.25% | |
| 2019 | 99.35% | 95.39% | ||
| 2018 | 98.44% | 95.38% | ||
| 2017 | 94.97% | |||
| 2016 | 98.25% | 94.86% | ||
| 2015 | 98.14% | 94.47% | ||
| 2014 | 98.09% | 94.56% | ||
| 2013 | 98.08% | 93.96% | ||
| 2012 | 97.89% | 94.23% | ||
| 2011 | 98.85% | 97.78% | 93.52% | |
| 2010 | 97.75% | 95.12% | 93.07% | |
| 2009 | 97.68% | 93.44% | ||
| 2008 | 97.63% | 92.93% | ||
| 2007 | 97.94% | 92.8% | ||
| 2006 | 97.75% | 91.73% | ||
| 2005 | 97.75% | 91.63% | ||
| 2004 | 97.17% | 90.95% | ||
| 2002 | 90.27% | |||
| 2001 | 98.42% | |||
| 2000 | 90.92% | 90.54% | ||
| 1991 | 96.49% | |||
| 1990 | 77.79% | 87.56% | ||
| 1982 | 65.51% | |||
| 1981 | 96.46% | 92.81% | ||
| 1980 | 82.99% |
World Bank definition
Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)
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.
Text published by the World Bank for indicator SE.ADT.LITR.ZS, reproduced unchanged.
The same indicator across Europe & Central Asia
Source: World Bank, World Bank Open Data Annual series, fetched server side and cached for 24 hours. The World Bank is never called from your browser.
