29 July 2007

UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2007

Cover of UN MDG Report 2007In June 2007, the United Nations published the latest edition of its annual report on progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007 presents data for each of the eight MDGs.
  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability
  8. Develop a global partnership for development
In the section on MDG 2, the achievement of universal primary education, the report shows trends in primary school enrollment from 1991 to 2005. The statistics are presented by MDG region. One region, the Commonwealth of Independent States, is further divided into countries in Europe and Asia.

Primary school net enrollment rate, 1991-2005
Bar graph with regional primary school net enrollment rates from 1991 to 2005
Source: United Nations, The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007, page 10.

Seven regions have reached primary school net enrollment rates at or above 90 percent: Commonwealth of Independent States (Europe and Asia), Eastern Asia, South-Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Latin America. Western Asia is slightly behind with a primary NER of 86 percent, followed by Oceania at 78 percent.

Sub-Saharan Africa has made the most progress over the past years, with a 13 percent increase in the primary NER from 57 percent in 1999 to 70 percent in 2005. Still, three out of ten children of primary school age in Sub-Saharan Africa are not enrolled in primary school. In all developing regions combined, the primary NER rose from 80 percent in 1991 to 88 percent in 2005.

Related articles
External links
Friedrich Huebler, 29 July 2007 (edited 17 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/07/un-millennium-development-goals-report.html

22 July 2007

Disparity between adult and youth literacy

Two recent articles on this web site present the latest data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) on adult literacy and youth literacy worldwide. The adult literacy rate refers to the population aged 15 years and over, the youth literacy rate to the population aged 15 to 24 years. Youth literacy is generally higher than adult literacy, due to increasing levels of school attendance over the past decades.

The scatter plot in Figure 1 compares adult and youth literacy in 133 countries with data. The adult literacy rate is plotted along the horizontal axis and the youth literacy rate along the vertical axis. Almost all countries are located above the 45 degree line in the graph, which means that youth literacy is higher than adult literacy. Countries with no difference between the two literacy rates are located along the 45 degree line.

Figure 1: Adult and youth literacy: all countries with data
Scatter plot of adult and youth literacy rates by country
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007.

Many countries are located close together in the upper right corner of Figure 1. To show the distribution in that part of the graph more clearly, Figure 2 plots only the 87 countries with literacy rates above 80 percent. Because of the scale, the difference between adult and youth literacy is exaggerated compared to Figure 1. The shape and color of the markers in both graphs indicate the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) region in which each country is located. The lowest literacy rates, below 60 percent, are reported for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

As Figure 2 shows, some countries from Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia have highly literate populations, with literacy rates above 80 or 90 percent. Other countries with high literacy rates are located in Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Asia, South-eastern Asia, and the other MDG regions. Developed countries and countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States are clustered in the upper right corner of Figure 2, near 100 percent adult and youth literacy.

Figure 2: Adult and youth literacy: countries with literacy rates above 80 percent
Scatter plot of adult and youth literacy rates by country
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007.

The average literacy rates in each MDG region are listed in Table 1. The mean literacy rates are simple unweighted averages across the countries with literacy data in a region and the values are therefore not representative for the entire population in each region.

Table 1 confirms the impression from Figure 1: adult and youth literacy rates are lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. In both regions, less than two thirds of the adult population are literate and the youth literacy rate is 10 to 12 percent higher than the adult literacy rate. In Western Asia, the youth literacy rate is also 10 percent above the adult literacy rate, but with an adult literacy rate of 85 percent, many more people can read and write than in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.

The difference between the two literacy rates is greatest in Northern Africa, where 88 percent of the population aged 15 to 24 years are literate, compared to 70 percent of the population aged 15 years or more. Based on the available data, smaller gaps between adult and youth literacy exist in Eastern Asia, South-eastern Asia, Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In the developed countries and in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, nearly the entire adult population is literate.

Table 1: Adult and youth literacy by MDG region
MDG regionCountries
with data in region
Adult literacy
rate (%)
Youth literacy
rate (%)
Difference youth-adult
literacy rate (%)
Developed countries1697.199.12.1
Commonwealth of Independent States1099.299.80.6
Eastern Asia393.398.75.4
South-eastern Asia1086.993.76.8
Oceania482.288.43.5
Southern Asia863.175.112.0
Western Asia1485.194.89.8
Northern Africa570.487.617.2
Sub-Saharan Africa4261.571.110.3
Latin America and the Caribbean2589.194.85.3
World13779.487.07.5
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007. Regional averages are unweighted. 137 countries have data on adult literacy, 133 countries have data on youth literacy.

Please visit the UIS Data Centre to download complete tables with national data on adult and youth literacy.

Related articles
External links
Friedrich Huebler, 22 July 2007 (edited 17 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/07/disparity-between-adult-and-youth.html

15 July 2007

Youth literacy rates

Last week, I posted an article on adult literacy with the latest statistics from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Today's article will look at the latest statistics on youth literacy. The youth literacy rate is the share of the population aged 15 to 24 years that is literate.

UNESCO provides national data on youth literacy for 133 countries. This compares to 137 countries for which the adult literacy rate is known. The youth literacy rate is usually higher than the adult literacy rate, especially in developing countries where the education system has expanded over the past decades. In a country where school attendance rates increase over time, persons born in a later year are more likely to attend school and to become literate.

The map below displays the youth literacy rate for each country with data, ranging from 24.2 percent in Mali to 100 percent in Cuba. Most industrialized countries have no data on youth literacy, but school attendance is almost universal in these countries and literacy rates are therefore also high.

Youth literacy rates by country
World map with youth literacy rate by country
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007.

In Eastern Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America, youth literacy rates are generally 90 percent or higher. In some countries in Africa and the Middle East, youth literacy rates are also at or above 90 percent. Of 133 countries with data, 87 report youth literacy rates between 90 and 100 percent. 10 more countries have literacy rates between 80 and 90 percent.

In 5 countries, less than 40 percent of the population between 15 and 24 years are literate: Mali (youth literacy rate 24.2 percent), Burkina Faso (33.0), Afghanistan (34.3), Niger (36.5), and Chad (37.6). In 8 countries, the youth literacy rate is between 40 and 60 percent: Benin (45.3), Guinea (46.6), Mozambique (47.0), Sierra Leone (47.9), Senegal (49.1), Ethiopia (49.9), Madagascar (57.6), and the Central African Republic (58.5). In the remaining 23 countries, the youth literacy is between 60 and 80 percent.

The complete set of youth and adult literacy statistics is available at the UIS Data Centre.

Related articles
External links
Friedrich Huebler, 15 July 2007 (edited 22 July 2007), Creative Commons License
Permanent link: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/07/youth-literacy-rates.html

08 July 2007

Adult literacy rates

In June 2007, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) released its latest literacy statistics, covering the years 1985 to 2005. In a change from literacy statistics released in previous years, UIS only reports on observed literacy and no longer uses proxy variables like educational attainment. The UIS database contains two sets of literacy rates:
  • Youth literacy rate: the share of the population aged 15 to 24 years that is literate.
  • Adult literacy rate: the share of the population aged 15 years and older that is literate.
Both literacy rates are reported at the national and regional level. The adult literacy rate is available for 137 countries, shown in the map below. It ranges from 23.6 percent in Burkina Faso to 99.8 percent in Cuba. For 71 countries, the adult literacy rate is unknown but most of these countries are industrialized and literacy can therefore be assumed to be at a high level.

Adult literacy rates by country
World map with adult literacy rate by country
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, June 2007.

Among countries with data, the highest literacy rates are observed in Eastern Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Virtually all countries in these regions have literacy rates above 80 percent. Some countries in Africa also report adult literacy rates at such a high level. In 57 countries worldwide, more than 90 percent of the adult population are literate. 31 countries have literacy rates between 80 and 90 percent.

The lowest literacy rates are observed in Africa and South Asia. In 6 countries, fewer than 3 out of 10 adults are literate: Burkina Faso (adult literacy rate 23.6 percent), Mali (24.0), Chad (24.7), Afghanistan (28.0), Niger (28.7), and Guinea (29.5). In 10 countries, the adult literacy rate is between 30 and 50 percent: Benin (34.7), Sierra Leone (34.8), Ethiopia (35.9), Mozambique (38.7), Senegal (39.3), Bangladesh (47.5), Central African Republic (48.6), Nepal (48.6), Cote d'Ivoire (48.7), and Pakistan (49.9).

In India, the second most populous country in the world, only 6 out of 10 adults are literate (literacy rate 61.0 percent). In China, the country with the largest population, many more people can read and write, with an adult literacy rate of 90.9 percent.

The complete set of literacy statistics is available at the UIS Data Centre.

Related articles
External links
Friedrich Huebler, 8 July 2007 (edited 22 July 2007), Creative Commons License
Permanent link: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/07/adult-literacy-rates.html