Adult literacy rate

% of people aged 15+. Ranking of 86 countries with data from 2021 to 2024. Series code SE.ADT.LITR.ZS.

Medians

World	90.1%
Low income	61.1%
Upper middle income	94.8%
Lower middle income	77.3%
High income	98.4%
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	94.4%
Europe & Central Asia	99.7%
Sub-Saharan Africa	71.8%
South Asia	78.6%
Latin America & Caribbean	94.4%
East Asia & Pacific	95.8%

Ranking

Rank 1 is the highest value. It does not mean best or worst.

Filter by country, region or income group

Rank	Country	Value	Year	5-yr change	Z-score	Region	Income group
1	Tuvalu	100.0%	2022	–	–	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
2	Uzbekistan	100.0%	2022	0.0 pp	+1.2	Europe & Central Asia	Lower middle income
3	Russian Federation	99.9%	2021	–	–	Europe & Central Asia	High income
4	San Marino	99.9%	2022	–	–	Europe & Central Asia	High income
5	Turkmenistan	99.9%	2022	–	–	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
6	Armenia	99.8%	2023	−0.2 pp	−0.1	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
7	Azerbaijan	99.8%	2023	0.0 pp	−2.9	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
8	Spain	99.7%	2021	+1.5 pp	+5.8	Europe & Central Asia	High income
9	Georgia	99.7%	2024	−0.2 pp	0.0	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
10	Tonga	99.5%	2023	+8.4 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
11	Serbia	99.3%	2022	+0.5 pp	–	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
12	Romania	99.2%	2021	–	–	Europe & Central Asia	High income
13	Uruguay	98.9%	2024	+0.1 pp	+1.3	Latin America & Caribbean	High income
14	United Arab Emirates	98.8%	2024	+1.0 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	High income
15	Mongolia	98.6%	2024	+0.2 pp	+0.1	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
16	West Bank and Gaza	97.9%	2024	+0.6 pp	+1.5	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Lower middle income
17	Saudi Arabia	97.9%	2024	+0.3 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	High income
18	Bahrain	97.8%	2024	–	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	High income
19	Albania	97.7%	2023	−1.1 pp	–	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
20	Singapore	97.7%	2021	+0.6 pp	+1.8	East Asia & Pacific	High income
21	Oman	97.3%	2022	+1.8 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	High income
22	Turkiye	97.3%	2021	+1.4 pp	+2.2	Europe & Central Asia	Upper middle income
23	Bolivia	96.7%	2024	+2.9 pp	–	Latin America & Caribbean	Lower middle income
24	Naoero	96.6%	2023	–	–	East Asia & Pacific	High income
25	Panama	96.2%	2024	+0.5 pp	–	Latin America & Caribbean	High income
26	Viet Nam	96.1%	2022	+0.4 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
27	Malaysia	95.8%	2022	+0.7 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
28	Marshall Islands	95.8%	2021	–	–	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
29	Mexico	95.6%	2024	+0.2 pp	+0.9	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
30	Colombia	95.3%	2024	+0.1 pp	+0.6	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
31	Paraguay	94.9%	2024	+1.7 pp	+0.4	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
32	Brazil	94.7%	2024	+0.8 pp	+1.1	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
33	Jordan	94.4%	2024	−1.0 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Upper middle income
34	Syrian Arab Republic	94.4%	2021	–	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Low income
35	Mauritius	94.3%	2023	+1.1 pp	+2.6	Sub-Saharan Africa	Upper middle income
36	Dominican Republic	94.0%	2024	+0.4 pp	+0.9	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
37	Peru	93.7%	2024	−0.8 pp	−1.9	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
38	Ecuador	93.5%	2024	−0.1 pp	−0.8	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
39	Sri Lanka	92.7%	2024	+0.5 pp	+1.4	South Asia	Upper middle income
40	South Africa	91.2%	2024	−3.9 pp	−0.9	Sub-Saharan Africa	Upper middle income
41	Thailand	91.1%	2022	−2.7 pp	−1.5	East Asia & Pacific	Upper middle income
42	Eswatini	90.8%	2022	–	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
43	Lesotho	90.5%	2024	−1.9 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
44	El Salvador	89.8%	2024	+0.6 pp	+1.1	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
45	Iran, Islamic Rep.	88.9%	2023	+2.0 pp	+1.6	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Upper middle income
46	Gabon	88.9%	2021	–	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Upper middle income
47	Cabo Verde	88.5%	2024	–	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Upper middle income
48	Honduras	88.3%	2024	−0.3 pp	+0.5	Latin America & Caribbean	Lower middle income
49	Vanuatu	88.0%	2023	−4.5 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Lower middle income
50	Belize	87.9%	2022	−3.0 pp	–	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
51	Namibia	87.6%	2023	−0.6 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
52	Papua New Guinea	87.0%	2022	+16.9 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Lower middle income
53	Tunisia	86.3%	2023	+6.8 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Lower middle income
54	Iraq	84.1%	2021	+0.8 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Upper middle income
55	Guatemala	82.1%	2024	+1.3 pp	+0.3	Latin America & Caribbean	Upper middle income
56	Egypt, Arab Rep.	79.5%	2022	+8.3 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Lower middle income
57	Bangladesh	79.0%	2022	+6.1 pp	+1.4	South Asia	Lower middle income
58	Rwanda	78.8%	2022	+5.5 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
59	Tanzania	78.2%	2022	+0.3 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
60	India	78.2%	2024	+3.3 pp	+0.7	South Asia	Lower middle income
61	Uganda	77.0%	2024	−2.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
62	Ghana	76.5%	2021	+12.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
63	Lao PDR	75.6%	2023	+1.9 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Lower middle income
64	Comoros	75.6%	2021	+2.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
65	Madagascar	74.7%	2021	−2.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
66	Togo	72.6%	2022	+11.6 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
67	Cambodia	71.9%	2021	−8.6 pp	−2.6	East Asia & Pacific	Lower middle income
68	Zambia	71.8%	2024	−10.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
69	Nigeria	70.4%	2024	+7.3 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
70	Timor-Leste	69.4%	2022	+3.6 pp	–	East Asia & Pacific	Lower middle income
71	Congo, Dem. Rep.	68.5%	2023	−5.1 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
72	Angola	68.2%	2023	–	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
73	Bhutan	64.9%	2022	−1.7 pp	–	South Asia	Lower middle income
74	Guinea-Bissau	63.9%	2022	+9.1 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
75	Mozambique	61.7%	2022	+1.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
76	Ethiopia	60.5%	2022	+13.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
77	Pakistan	58.9%	2021	−0.3 pp	+1.4	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Lower middle income
78	Somalia, Fed. Rep.	54.1%	2022	−9.5 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
79	Gambia, The	51.6%	2021	+0.9 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
80	Benin	51.4%	2022	+12.5 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
81	Senegal	50.4%	2023	+3.8 pp	+1.3	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
82	Cote d'Ivoire	50.0%	2021	0.0 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Lower middle income
83	Burkina Faso	41.6%	2023	+2.2 pp	+1.2	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
84	Afghanistan	37.3%	2021	+3.5 pp	–	Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	Low income
85	Mali	35.6%	2024	+0.2 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income
86	Niger	35.6%	2022	+2.6 pp	–	Sub-Saharan Africa	Low income

72 further countries have data for this indicator but nothing recent enough to rank.

How the advanced metrics are calculated. Change: latest value minus the value 5 or 10 years earlier, using the nearest observation within two years where the exact year is missing (percentage points for % series). CAGR: (latest ÷ earlier value)^(1 ÷ years between) − 1 over about 10 years, shown only for positive levels such as income and population. Volatility: standard deviation of the 10 observations before the latest. Z-score: how many standard deviations the latest value sits from that 10-year mean. Rank: among countries whose latest value is within 3 years of the newest year for that indicator; 1 is the highest value. Peer medians: the same group of recent values, split by income group, region and world. Share of high-income median: the country's value as a percentage of the median high-income country in the same year, compared with 10 years earlier. A rising share means the country is catching up; it is arithmetic about the past, not a forecast.

Source. World Bank, World Development Indicators (datacatalog.worldbank.org), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-11-11. Some series are compiled by third parties such as the ILO and UN agencies and are subject to those sources' notes.

Changes made. ECONDEX has calculated all changes, growth rates, volatility, z-scores, ranks, peer medians and charts. The World Bank did not prepare, review or endorse them.

Read with care. The latest figure for each country is often one to three years old and different countries report different years. Some figures are modelled estimates. Ranks compare countries on values from different years and are not judgements of performance. Country names, groupings and boundaries follow World Bank usage and imply no view on the legal status of any territory.

Not advice. For information only. This is not investment, financial, legal or policy advice. Do not rely on it for decisions without checking the source.