Upper middle income - Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24)

Literacy rate, youth total (% of people ages 15-24) in Upper middle income was 98.55 as of 2020. Its highest value over the past 44 years was 99.22 in 2016, while its lowest value was 84.87 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
1976 84.87
1977 85.06
1978 86.04
1979 87.00
1980 87.87
1981 88.65
1982 89.42
1983 89.90
1984 90.54
1985 91.05
1986 91.52
1987 92.42
1988 93.51
1989 93.71
1990 94.02
1991 94.34
1992 94.63
1993 94.91
1994 95.19
1995 95.51
1996 95.71
1997 97.37
1998 97.48
1999 97.58
2000 97.67
2001 97.77
2002 97.91
2003 98.16
2004 98.27
2005 98.37
2006 98.23
2007 98.45
2008 98.77
2009 98.47
2010 98.45
2011 98.43
2012 98.92
2013 98.88
2014 99.15
2015 98.55
2016 99.22
2017 99.20
2018 98.48
2019 98.52
2020 98.55

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