List of countries by literacy

Literacy

Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...

 rate, as included in the United Nations Development Programme

United Nations Development Programme

The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...

 (UNDP) Report 2009.

The figures from the report represent a mixture of data collected by the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 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 Literacy Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...  rate
1	1	Georgia (country)	100.0
2	2	Cuba	99.9
3	2	Estonia	99.8
4	2	Latvia	99.8
5	5	Barbados	99.7
6	5	Slovenia	99.7
7	5	Belarus	99.7
8	5	Lithuania	99.7
9	5	Ukraine	99.7
10	5	Armenia	99.7
11	11	Kazakhstan	99.6
12	11	Tajikistan	99.6
13	13	Azerbaijan	99.5
14	13	Turkmenistan	99.5
15	13	Russia	99.5
16	16	Hungary	99.4
17	17	Kyrgyzstan	99.3
18	17	Poland	99.3
19	19	Tonga	99.2
20	20	Albania	99.1
21	20	Antigua and Barbuda	99.0
22	20	Australia	99.0
23	20	Austria	99.0
24	20	Belgium	99.0
25	20	Canada	99.0
26	20	Czech Republic	99.0
27	20	North Korea	99.0
28	20	Denmark	99.0
29	20	Finland	99.0
30	20	Early Modern France	99.0
31	20	Germany	99.0
32	20	Guyana	99.0
33	20	Iceland	99.0
34	20	Republic of Ireland	99.0
35	20	Japan	99.0
36	20	South Korea	99.0
37	20	Luxembourg	99.0
38	20	Netherlands	99.0
39	20	New Zealand	99.0
40	20	Norway	99.0
41	20	Slovakia	99.0
42	20	Sweden	99.0
43	20	Switzerland	99.0
44	20	United Kingdom	99.0
45	20	United States See also: Literacy in the United States Literacy in the United States Rates of literacy in the United States depend on which of the various definitions of literacy is used. Governments may label individuals who can read a couple of thousand simple words they learned by sight in the first four grades in school as literate...	99.0
46	46	Italy	98.9
47	47	Samoa	98.7
48	47	Trinidad and Tobago	98.7
49	47	Independent State of Croatia	98.7
50	50	Kingdom of Bulgaria	98.3
51	51	Spain	97.9
52	51	Uruguay	97.9
53	53	Saint Kitts and Nevis	97.8
54	54	Cyprus	97.7
55	55	Kingdom of Romania	97.6
56	55	Argentina	97.6
57	57	Mongolia	97.3
58	58	Israel	97.1
59	59	Greece	97.1
60	60	Maldives	97.0
61	60	Republic of Macedonia	97.0
62	62	Uzbekistan	96.9
63	63	Bosnia and Herzegovina	96.7
64	64	Chile	96.5
65	65	Serbia	96.4
66	66	Grenada	96.0
67	67	Singapore	95.9
68	68	Mainland China	95.9
69	69	Costa Rica	95.9
70	70	The Bahamas	95.8
71	71	Venezuela	95.2
72	72	Brunei	94.9
73	73	Portugal	94.9
74	74	Saint Lucia	94.8
75	75	Hong Kong	94.6
76	76	Paraguay	94.6
77	77	Kuwait	94.5
78	77	Fiji	94.4
79	78	Sri Lanka	94.2
80	79	Thailand	94.1
81	80	Panama	93.4
82	80	Philippines	93.4
83	82	Palestinian National Authority	93.3
84	83	Qatar	93.1
85	84	Mexico	92.8
86	85	Colombia	92.7
87	86	Malta	92.4
88	87	Indonesia	92.0
89	88	Malaysia	91.9
90	89	Seychelles	91.8
91	90	Zimbabwe	91.2
92	91	Jordan	91.1
93	92	Ecuador	91.0
94	94	Bolivia	90.7
95	95	Suriname	90.4
96	96	Vietnam	90.3
97	97	United Arab Emirates	90.0
98	97	Brazil	90.0
99	99	Myanmar	89.9
100	100	Peru	89.6
101	100	Lebanon	89.6
102	102	Dominican Republic	89.1
103	103	Bahrain	88.8
104	104	Turkey	90.8
105	105	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	88.1
106	106	Dominica	88.0
107	106	Namibia	88.0
108	106	South Africa	88.0
109	109	São Tomé and Príncipe	87.9
110	110	Mauritius	87.4
111	111	Equatorial Guinea	87.0
112	112	Libya	86.8
113	113	Gabon	86.2
114	114	Jamaica	86.0
115	115	Saudi Arabia	85.0
116	116	Cape Verde	83.8
117	117	Honduras	83.6
118	118	Syria	83.1
119	119	Botswana	82.9
120	120	Iran	82.3
121	121	Lesotho	82.2
122	122	El Salvador	82.0
123	123	Oman	81.4
124	124	Republic of the Congo	81.1
125	125	Swaziland	79.6
126	126	Vanuatu	78.1
127	127	Tunisia	77.7
128	128	Nicaragua	78.0
129	129	Solomon Islands	76.6
130	130	Cambodia	76.3
131	131	Algeria	75.4
132	132	Belize	75.1
133	133	Comoros	75.1
134	134	India	75.04
135	135	Kenya	73.6
136	135	Uganda	73.3
137	137	Guatemala	73.2
138	138	Tanzania	72.3
139	139	Nigeria	72.0
140	140	Malawi	71.8
141	141	Madagascar	70.7
142	142	Zambia	70.6
143	143	Djibouti	70.3
144	144	Laos	68.7
145	145	Nepal	68.2
146	146	Cameroon	67.9
147	147	Angola	67.4
148	148	Democratic Republic of the Congo	67.2
149	149	Egypt	66.4
150	150	Ghana	65.0
151	151	Rwanda	64.9
152	152	Guinea-Bissau	64.6
153	153	Eritrea	67.2
154	154	Haiti	62.1
155	155	Sudan	60.9
156	156	Burundi	59.3
157	157	Yemen	58.9
158	158	Pakistan	58.2
159	159	Papua New Guinea	57.8
160	160	Mauritania	55.8
161	161	Morocco	55.6
162	162	Bangladesh	53.5
163	163	Togo	53.2
164	164	Bhutan	52.8
165	165	East Timor	50.1
166	166	Côte d'Ivoire	48.7
167	167	Central African Republic	48.6
168	168	Mozambique	44.4
169	169	The Gambia	42.5
170	170	Senegal	41.9
171	171	Benin	40.5
172	172	Sierra Leone	38.1
173	173	Ethiopia	35.9
174	174	Chad	31.8
175	175	Guinea	29.5
176	176	Burkina Faso	28.7
177	176	Niger	28.7
178	178		27.0
179	179	Mali	26.2