Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — BRICS

Literacy rate in BRICS in 2021 — 81.01%. Since 2010, the indicator has fallen by 3.4 pp.

2021 81.01% −6.53 pp vs 2020
World rank
Period maximum 87.54%2020
Period minimum 76.14%2011

Trend over time

2010–2021 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — BRICS, 2010–20217580859020102012201420162018202020212010: 84.41%2011: 76.14%2019: 78.57%2020: 87.54%2021: 81.01%
Change over the period: −3.4 pp Annual average: -0.31 pp

Comparison, 2021

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: BRICS

BRICS 81.01%
World 87.17%
Literacy rate — BRICS, by year BRICS All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2021 81.01 −6.53 pp
2020 87.54 +8.97 pp
2019 78.57
2011 76.14 −8.27 pp
2010 84.41

About the indicator

The share of the population aged 15 and older able to read and write a short simple statement about their everyday life. The UNESCO definition is deliberately minimal — it is the threshold of functional literacy, not an assessment of the quality of education. In most countries the data come from censuses and surveys, so they are updated irregularly.

Important: The series is incomplete: values are published only for the years in which a census or a literacy survey was conducted.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), license CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.