✍️ Global literacy at record high level

✍️ Global literacy at record high level

In 1820 only 12% of the people in the world could read and write, today the share has reversed and almost 90 percent are literate.

Mathias Sundin
Magnus Aschan
Mathias Sundin, Magnus Aschan

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Literacy levels for the world population have risen drastically in the last couple of centuries.

Only 12% of the people in the world could read and write in 1820, today the share has reversed: only 14% of the world population, in 2016, remained illiterate.

Over the last 65 years the global literacy rate increased by 4% every 5 years – from 42% in 1960 to 86% in 2015.

In 1870 only one in four people in the world attended school, and this meant that only one in five were able to read. Today school attendance is above 80%, and the inequality between world regions – while still existing – is much lower.

Young generations are better educated than ever before.

Read more at the excellent website OurWorldInData.

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