Arab World - Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24)

Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24) in Arab World was 80.62 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 43 years was 84.46 in 2014, while its lowest value was 48.96 in 1977.

Definition: Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (http://uis.unesco.org/)

See also:

Year Value
1977 48.96
1978 49.55
1979 50.22
1980 51.07
1981 52.05
1982 53.13
1983 53.69
1984 55.24
1985 56.75
1986 58.25
1987 59.55
1988 60.94
1989 62.28
1990 63.71
1991 65.37
1992 66.71
1993 66.02
1994 67.32
1995 68.57
1996 70.02
1997 71.23
1998 72.33
1999 73.48
2000 74.54
2001 75.74
2002 77.12
2003 77.30
2004 78.35
2005 78.90
2006 78.35
2007 79.34
2008 80.17
2009 77.17
2010 77.75
2011 78.21
2012 82.46
2013 83.24
2014 84.46
2015 81.13
2016 83.53
2017 84.29
2018 80.35
2019 80.49
2020 80.62

Development Relevance: Literacy rate is an outcome indicator to evaluate educational attainment. This data can predict the quality of future labor force and can be used in ensuring policies for life skills for men and women. It can be also used as a proxy instrument to see the effectiveness of education system; a high literacy rate suggests the capacity of an education system to provide a large population with opportunities to acquire literacy skills. The accumulated achievement of education is fundamental for further intellectual growth and social and economic development, although it doesn't necessarily ensure the quality of education. Literate women implies that they can seek and use information for the betterment of the health, nutrition and education of their household members. Literate women are also empowered to play a meaningful role.

Limitations and Exceptions: In practice, literacy is difficult to measure. Estimating literacy rates requires census or survey measurements under controlled conditions. Many countries report the number of literate people from self-reported data. Some use educational attainment data as a proxy but apply different lengths of school attendance or levels of completion. Ant there is a trend among recent national and international surveys toward using a direct reading test of literacy skills. Because definitions and methods of data collection differ across countries, data should be used cautiously.

Other Notes: Data retrieved via API in March 2019. For detailed information on the observation level (e.g. National Estimation, UIS Estimation, or Category not applicable), please visit UIS.Stat (http://data.uis.unesco.org/).

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Literacy statistics for most countries cover the population ages 15 and older, but some include younger ages or are confined to age ranges that tend to inflate literacy rates. The youth literacy rate for ages 15-24 reflects recent progress in education. It measures the accumulated outcomes of primary education over the previous 10 years or so by indicating the proportion of the population who have passed through the primary education system and acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills. Generally, literacy also encompasses numeracy, the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations. Data on literacy are compiled by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics based on national censuses and household surveys and, for countries without recent literacy data, using the Global Age-Specific Literacy Projection Model (GALP). For detailed information, see www.uis.unesco.org.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Education Indicators

Sub-Topic: Outcomes