List of countries by literacy rate

World map indicating literacy by country (2011 Human Development Report) Grey = no data

World map indicating Education Index by country (2007/2008 Human Development Report)

List of countries by literacy rate, as included in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report 2011.^[3][4]

The figures from the report represent a mixture of data collected by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, national self-reported data, and the UNDP's global projection models. Where data was unavailable older figures were used. For highly developed/high income countries where literacy statistics were not collected, a rate of 99% was assumed.

List

#	Rank	Country	Literacy rate [b]
1	1	Georgia	100.0
2	2	Cuba	99.9
3	3	Estonia	99.8
4	4	Latvia	99.8
5	5	Barbados	99.7 [j]
6	6	Slovenia	99.7 [l]
7	7	Belarus	99.7
8	8	Lithuania	99.7
9	9	Ukraine	99.7
10	10	Armenia	99.7
11	11	Kazakhstan	99.6
12	12	Tajikistan	99.6
13	13	Azerbaijan	99.5
14	14	Turkmenistan	99.5
15	15	Russia	99.5
16	16	Hungary	99.4 [j]
17	17	Kyrgyzstan	99.3
18	17	Poland	99.5 [j]
19	19	Tonga	99.2
20	20	Albania	99.1
21	20	Antigua and Barbuda	99.0 [q]
22	20	Australia	99.0 [d]
23	20	Austria	99.0 [d]
24	20	Belgium	99.0 [d]
25	20	Canada	99.0 [d]
26	20	Czech Republic	99.0 [d]
27	20	North Korea	99.0 [d]
28	20	Denmark	99.0 [d]
29	20	Finland	99.0 [d]
30	20	France	99.0 [d]
31	20	Germany	99.0 [d]
32	20	Guyana	99.0 [j]
33	20	Iceland	99.0 [d]
34	20	Ireland	99.0 [d]
35	20	Japan	99.0 [d]
36	20	South Korea	99.0 [d]
37	20	Luxembourg	99.0 [d]
38	20	Netherlands	99.0 [d]
39	20	New Zealand	99.0 [d]
40	20	Norway	99.0 [d]
41	20	Slovakia	99.0 [d]
42	20	Sweden	99.0 [d]
43	20	Switzerland	99.0 [d]
44	20	United Kingdom	99.0 [d]
45	20	United States See also: Literacy in the United States	99.0 [d]
46	46	Italy	98.9
47	47	Samoa	98.8 [l]
48	48	Croatia	98.8
49	49	Trinidad and Tobago	98.7 [l]
50	50	Uruguay	98.3
51	51	Bulgaria	98.3
52	52	Spain	97.9 [d]
53	53	Cyprus	97.9
54	54	Bosnia and Herzegovina	97.8
55	55	Serbia	97.8
56	56	Saint Kitts and Nevis	97.8 [k]
57	57	Romania	97.7
58	58	Argentina	97.7
59	59	Mongolia	97.5
60	60	Greece	97.2
61	61	Israel	97.1 [k]
62	62	Macedonia	97.1
63	63	Maldives	97.0
64	64	Uzbekistan	96.9 [j]
65	65	Chile	96.5
66	66	Costa Rica	96.1
67	67	Grenada	96.0 [q]
68	68	China	95.9 [k]
69	69	Bahamas	95.8 [j]
70	70	Venezuela	95.2
71	71	Brunei Darussalam	95.3
72	72	Portugal	94.9 [l]
73	73	Saint Lucia	94.8 [q]
74	74	Qatar	94.7
75	75	Singapore	94.7
76	76	Hong Kong	94.6 [j]
78	78	Paraguay	94.6 [l]
79	79	Kuwait	94.5
80	80	Fiji	94.4 [j]
81	81	Sri Lanka	94.2 [w]
82	82	Thailand	94.1
83	83	Panama	93.6
84	84	Philippines	93.4
85	85	Mexico	93.4
86	86	Equatorial Guinea	93.3
87	87	Colombia	93.2
88	88	Vietnam	92.8
89	89	Malaysia	92.5
90	90	Malta	92.4
91	91	Indonesia	92.0
92	92	Myanmar	92.0
93	93	Zimbabwe	91.9 [l]
94	94	Seychelles	91.8
95	95	Bahrain	91.4
96	96	Jordan	91.1
97	97	Ecuador	91.0
98	98	Iran	91.0
99	99	Turkey	90.8
100	100	Bolivia	90.7
101	101	Suriname	90.4
102	102	United Arab Emirates	90.0 [l]
103	103	Brazil	90.0
104	104	Lesotho	89.7
105	105	Peru	89.6
106	106	Lebanon	89.6 [j]
107	107	Dominican Republic	89.1
108	108	Libya	88.9
109	109	Sao Tome and Principe	88.8
110	110	Namibia	88.5
111	111	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	88.1 [q]
112	112	Dominica	88.0 [q]
113	113	South Africa	88.0
114	114	Mauritius	87.9
115	115	Gabon	87.7
116	116	Kenya	87.0
117	117	Swaziland	86.9
118	118	Jamaica	86.4
119	119	Saudi Arabia	86.1
120	120	Cape Verde	84.8 [l]
121	121	Syria	84.2
122	122	Ecuador	84.2
123	123	Botswana	84.1
124	124	El Salvador	84.1
125	125	Honduras	83.6
126	126	Oman	81.4
127	127	Republic of the Congo	81.1 [l]
128	128	Vanuatu	80.2
129	129	Iraq	78.1
130	130	Nicaragua	78.0
131	131	Tunisia	77.7
132	132	Solomon Islands	76.6 [k]
133	133	Cambodia	76.3
134	134	Algeria	75.4
135	135	Belize	75.1 [q]
136	136	Guatemala	74.5
137	137	India	74.04
138	138	Comoros	74.2
139	139	Malawi	73.7
140	140	Uganda	73.3
141	141	Tanzania	72.9
142	142	Nigeria	72.0* [l]
143	143	Zambia	70.9
144	144	Madagascar	70.7
145	145	Rwanda	70.7
146	146	Djibouti	70.3 [j]
147	147	Sudan	70.2 [aa]
148	148	Angola	70.0
149	149	Laos	68.7
150	150	Nepal	68.2
151	151	Cameroon	67.9
152	152	Democratic Republic of the Congo	66.8
153	153	Eritrea	66.6
154	154	Ghana	66.6
155	155	Burundi	66.6
156	156	Egypt	66.4
157	157	Yemen	62.4 [l]
158	158	Haiti	62.1 [j]
159	159	Papua New Guinea	60.1
160	160	Pakistan	58.2
161	161	Mauritania	57.5
162	162	Morocco	56.1
163	163	Bangladesh	55.9
164	164	Côte d'Ivoire	55.3
165	165	Central African Republic	55.2
166	166	Mozambique	55.1
167	167	Togo	53.2
168	168	Bhutan	52.8 [v]
169	169	Guinea-Bissau	52.2
170	170	Timor-Leste	50.1 [ab]
171	171	Senegal	49.7
172	172	Gambia	46.5 [j]
173	173	Benin	41.7
174	174	Sierra Leone	40.9
175	175	Guinea	39.5
176	176	Ethiopia	35.9
177	177	Chad	33.6
178	178	Burkina Faso	28.7
179	179	Niger	28.7
180	180	Afghanistan	28.0
181	181	South Sudan	27.0
182	182	Mali	26.2
183	183	Somalia	24.0

See also

• International Literacy Day
• Literacy
• Compulsory education

Notes

• ^ United Nations Development Program [5]
• ^ Tables can be found UNDP.org
• ^b 0 Data refer to national literacy estimates from censuses or surveys conducted between 1995 and 2005, unless otherwise specified. Due to differences in methodology and timeliness of underlying data, comparisons across countries and over time should be made with caution. For more details, see Unesco.org.
• ^d 1 For purposes of calculating the HDI, a value of 99.0% was applied.
• ^v 2 UNICEF 2004.
• ^l 3 UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates based on its Global Age-specific Literacy Projections model, April 2007.
• ^j 4 In the absence of recent data, estimates from UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2003, based on outdated census or survey information, were used and should be interpreted with caution: Bahamas 95.8, Barbados 90.7, Comoros 56.8, Djibouti 70.3, Eritrea 67.5, Fiji 94.4, Gambia 42.5, Guinea-Bissau 11.00, Guyana 99.0, Haiti 54.8, Hong Kong, China (SAR) 94.6, Hungary 99.4, Lebanon 88.3, Poland 99.8 and Uzbekistan 80.4. Note that the 1991 census in Comoros indicates a literacy rate of 91% for the three independent islands.
• ^k 5 Data are from national sources.
• ^q 6 Data are from the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community, based on national sources.
• ^w 7 www.moe.gov.lk
• ^aa 8 Data refer to North Sudan only.
• ^ab 9 UNDP 2007.
• The Holy See (Vatican City) not listed