Global Literacy Rate by Age Group and Sex (2016)

About This Dataset

This chart presents global literacy rates across four age groups - adults, youth, working-age adults, and elderly - broken down by sex, based on UNESCO data for 2016.

✨ AI Insight

Youth (aged 15-24) consistently show the highest literacy rates across all gender categories, reflecting improved access to education over time. The elderly population (65+) has the lowest literacy rates, with women at 73% compared to men at 83%, highlighting historical gender inequalities in education access. The gender parity index of 0.92 for adults overall indicates women remain measurably behind men in literacy globally, while the youth GPI of 0.96 signals that the gap is narrowing significantly with younger generations - a promising trend for future parity.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Youth (15-24) - Men leads with 93 in 2016.

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Average value in 2016: 85 · median: 86.

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Gap in 2016: Youth (15-24) - Men is 1.3× larger than Elderly (65+) - Women.