List of states by literacy rate

World map of the countries by literacy rate (2015)

This list of states by literacy rate sorts the states of the world according to their reading ability rate , based on residents who are over 15 years old and can read and write. It lists data from 2015 from The World Factbook of the US secret service CIA .

The literacy level provides information about the level of development of a country and the level of education of its population. The global rate in 2015 was 86.3%, for women 82.7% and for men 90.0%. Of the approximately 780 million illiterate people worldwide ( illiterate ) has about 75% in the poor regions of the Middle East , South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa .

The following list is sorted alphabetically if the value is the same (functional illiteracy and reading and spelling weaknesses are not counted):

2015	Reading ability
country	♂   men	♀   women	total
0worldwide	90.0%	82.7%	86.3%
Australia	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Belgium	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Denmark	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Germany	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Finland	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
France	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Hong Kong	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Ireland	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Iceland	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Israel	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Japan	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Canada	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Latvia	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Luxembourg	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
New Zealand	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Netherlands	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
North Korea	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Norway	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Austria	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Sweden	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Switzerland	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
South Korea	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Czech Republic	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
United Kingdom	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
United States	> 99.9%	> 99.9%	> 99.9%
Armenia	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Azerbaijan	99.9%	99.7%	99.8%
Estonia	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Georgia	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Kazakhstan	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Lithuania	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Poland	99.9%	99.7%	99.8%
Tajikistan	99.8%	99.8%	99.8%
Ukraine	99.9%	99.7%	99.8%
Cuba	99.7%	99.8%	99.7%
Russia	99.7%	99.7%	99.7%
Slovenia	99.7%	99.7%	99.7%
Belarus	99.8%	99.7%	99.7%
Slovakia	99.6%	99.6%	99.6%
Uzbekistan	99.7%	99.5%	99.6%
Palau	99.5%	99.6%	99.5%
Kyrgyzstan	99.6%	99.4%	99.5%
Moldova	99.7%	99.1%	99.4%
Tonga	99.3%	99.4%	99.4%
Maldives	99.8%	98.8%	99.3%
Croatia	99.7%	98.9%	99.3%
Italy	99.4%	99.0%	99.2%
Hungary	99.1%	99.1%	99.1%
Cyprus	99.5%	98.7%	99.1%
Samoa	98.9%	99.1%	99.0%
Trinidad and Tobago	99.2%	98.7%	99.0%
Romania	99.1%	98.5%	98.8%
Montenegro	99.5%	98.0%	98.7%
Taiwan	99.7%	97.7%	98.7%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	99.5%	97.5%	98.5%
Bulgaria	98.7%	98.1%	98.4%
Mongolia	98.2%	98.6%	98.4%
Uruguay	98.1%	98.7%	98.4%
Argentina	98.0%	98.1%	98.1%
Serbia	99.1%	97.2%	98.1%
Spain	98.7%	97.5%	98.1%
Costa Rica	97.7%	97.8%	97.8%
North Macedonia	98.8%	96.8%	97.8%
Qatar	97.9%	97.4%	97.8%
Greece	98.5%	96.9%	97.7%
Albania	98.4%	96.8%	97.6%
Chile	97.4%	97.2%	97.3%
Singapore	98.7%	95.1%	96.8%
Jordan	98.1%	95.2%	96.7%
Thailand	96.6%	96.7%	96.7%
Brunei	97.7%	95.1%	96.4%
People's Republic of China	98.2%	94.5%	96.4%
Kuwait	96.5%	95.8%	96.3%
Macau	98.0%	94.6%	96.2%
Philippines	95.8%	96.8%	96.2%
Bahrain	96.9%	93.5%	95.7%
Bolivia	97.8%	93.6%	95.7%
Paraguay	96.1%	95.0%	95.6%
Suriname	91.1%	95.0%	95.6%
Portugal	96.9%	94.1%	95.4%
Venezuela	95.0%	95.7%	95.4%
Equatorial Guinea	97.4%	93.0%	95.3%
Seychelles	94.7%	95.7%	95.2%
Turkey	98.4%	91.8%	95.0%
Panama	95.7%	94.4%	95.0%
Oman	96.9%	91.2%	94.8%
Colombia	94.6%	94.8%	94.7%
Saudi Arabia	97.0%	91.1%	94.7%
Malaysia	96.2%	93.2%	94.6%
Ecuador	95.4%	93.5%	94.5%
Peru	97.3%	91.7%	94.5%
Vietnam	96.3%	92.8%	94.5%
Mexico	95.6%	93.3%	94.4%
South Africa	95.5%	93.1%	94.3%
Malta	92.5%	95.7%	94.1%
Indonesia	96.3%	91.5%	93.9%
Lebanon	96.0%	91.8%	93.9%
United Arab Emirates	93.1%	95.8%	93.8%
Puerto Rico	92.8%	93.8%	93.3%
Myanmar	95.2%	91.2%	93.1%
Brazil	92.2%	92.9%	92.6%
Sri Lanka	93.6%	91.7%	92.6%
Kosovo	96.6%	87.5%	91.9%
Dominican Republic	91.2%	92.3%	91.8%
Libya	96.7%	85.6%	91.0%
Mauritius	92.9%	88.5%	90.6%
Jamaica	84.0%	93.1%	88.7%
Botswana	88.0%	88.9%	88.5%
Guyana	87.2%	89.8%	88.5%
Honduras	88.4%	88.6%	88.5%
El Salvador	90.7%	86.4%	88.4%
Cape Verde	92.1%	83.1%	87.6%
Swaziland	87.4%	87.5%	87.5%
Iran	91.2%	82.5%	86.8%
Zimbabwe	88.5%	84.6%	86.5%
Syria	91.7%	81.0%	86.4%
WORLD	90.0%	82.7%	86.2%
Burundi	88.2%	83.1%	85.6%
Vanuatu	86.6%	83.8%	85.2%
Solomon Islands	88.9%	79.1%	84.1%
Gabon	85.3%	81.0%	83.2%
Nicaragua	82.4%	83.2%	82.8%
Belize	82.3%	83.0%	82.7%
Namibia	79.2%	84.5%	81.9%
Tunisia	89.6%	74.2%	81.8%
Tanzania	84.8%	75.9%	80.3%
Algeria	87.2%	73.1%	80.2%
Laos	87.1%	72.8%	79.9%
Iraq	85.7%	73.7%	79.7%
Lesotho	70.1%	88.3%	79.4%
Republic of the Congo	86.4%	72.9%	79.3%
Guatemala	84.7%	74.4%	79.3%
Kenya	81.1%	74.9%	78.0%
Comoros	81.8%	73.7%	77.8%
Democratic Republic of Congo	88.9%	66.0%	77.3%
Cambodia	84.5%	70.5%	77.2%
Ghana	82.0%	71.4%	76.6%
Sudan	83.3%	68.6%	75.9%
Egypt	83.2%	67.3%	75.2%
Cameroon	81.2%	68.9%	75.0%
Sao Tome and Principe	81.8%	68.4%	74.9%
Uganda	80.8%	66.9%	73.9%
Eritrea	82.4%	65.5%	73.8%
Morocco	82.7%	62.5%	72.4%
India	81.3%	60.6%	71.2%
Angola	82.0%	60.2%	71.1%
Rwanda	73.2%	68.0%	70.5%
Yemen	85.1%	55.0%	70.1%
East Timor	71.5%	63.4%	67.5%
Togo	78.3%	55.3%	66.5%
Malawi	73.0%	58.6%	65.8%
Bhutan	76.1%	55.0%	64.9%
Nepal	75.6%	55.1%	64.7%
Madagascar	66.7%	62.6%	64.7%
Papua New Guinea	65.6%	62.8%	64.2%
Zambia	70.9%	56.0%	63.4%
Bangladesh	64.6%	58.5%	61.5%
Haiti	64.3%	57.3%	60.7%
Guinea-Bissau	71.8%	48.3%	59.9%
Nigeria	69.2%	49.7%	59.6%
Mozambique	73.3%	45.4%	58.8%
Pakistan	69.6%	42.7%	56.4%
Senegal	68.5%	43.8%	55.7%
Gambia	63.9%	47.6%	55.5%
Mauritania	62.6%	41.6%	52.1%
Ethiopia	57.2%	41.1%	49.1%
Sierra Leone	58.7%	37.7%	48.1%
Liberia	62.4%	32.8%	47.6%
Ivory Coast	53.1%	32.5%	43.1%
Chad	48.5%	31.9%	40.2%
Mali	48.2%	29.2%	38.7%
Benin	49.9%	27.3%	38.4%
Afghanistan	52.0%	24.2%	38.2%
Central African Republic	50.7%	24.4%	36.8%
Burkina Faso	43.0%	29.3%	36.0%
South Sudan	38.6%	25.3%	31.9%
Guinea	38.1%	22.8%	30.4%
Niger	27.3%	11.0%	19.1%
country	♂   men	♀   women	total
2015	Reading ability

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CIA : Literacy. In: The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency . Retrieved December 16, 2018 .