South Asia - Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24)

Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24) in South Asia was 90.53 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 45 years was 90.53 in 2020, while its lowest value was 47.80 in 1976.

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
1975 47.83
1976 47.80
1977 48.51
1978 49.17
1979 49.78
1980 50.25
1981 50.53
1982 51.22
1983 51.79
1984 52.35
1985 52.95
1986 53.58
1987 54.22
1988 54.82
1989 56.10
1990 57.30
1991 58.25
1992 59.94
1993 61.41
1994 62.62
1995 63.81
1996 64.97
1997 66.01
1998 69.55
1999 70.82
2000 71.96
2001 72.94
2002 74.03
2003 75.20
2004 76.20
2005 77.18
2006 78.28
2007 78.34
2008 81.04
2009 81.97
2010 82.21
2011 82.93
2012 83.87
2013 85.17
2014 85.99
2015 86.96
2016 88.09
2017 88.63
2018 89.27
2019 89.96
2020 90.53

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