Youth Literacy Rate and 50-Year Progress by Region and Sex (2016)
About This Dataset
Youth Literacy Rate and 50-Year Progress by Region and Sex (2016)Women have made substantially greater literacy gains than men over the past 50 years across almost every region. Globally, young women improved their literacy rate by 17 percentage points relative to elderly women, compared to just 9 points for men. The most striking female progress occurred in Southern Asia, where young women are nearly 59 percentage points more literate than elderly women, compared to a 34-point gain for men. Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa and Western Asia show similarly large female gains of 46 and 44 points respectively. In Central Asia and Europe and Northern America, near-universal literacy already existed among elderly women, leaving little room for improvement. These trends reflect decades of expanded girls' education globally, though gender gaps persist in several developing regions.
Key Findings
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Youth Literacy Rate and 50-Year Progress by Region and Sex (2016)
Data Insights
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Rankings & Full Data
48 records · Youth Literacy Rate (%) and Gain vs Elderly Rate (percentage points) · ranked by 2016
Data Sources & References
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Related Charts
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The comparison between youth and elderly literacy rates serves as a proxy for five decades of progress. Southern Asia sh...
Southern Asia made the most dramatic improvement in adult literacy between 1990 and 2016, rising from 46% to 72% - a gai...
Southern Asia alone accounts for nearly half of all illiterate adults globally, making it the single most critical regio...