Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Costa Rica

Literacy rate in Costa Rica in 2011 — 97.41%. Ranked 17 in the world out of 53. Since 1984, the indicator has risen by 4.78 pp.

2011 97.41% +2.54 pp vs 2000
World rank 17of 53
Period maximum 97.41%2011
Period minimum 92.63%1984

Trend over time

1984–2011 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Costa Rica, 1984–20119294969819841987199019931996199920022005200820111984: 92.63%2000: 94.87%2011: 97.41%
Change over the period: +4.78 pp Annual average: 0.18 pp

Comparison, 2011

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

Costa Rica 97.41%
World 84.71%
Literacy rate — Costa Rica, by year Costa Rica All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2011 97.41
2000 94.87
1984 92.63

Central America, 2011

The same indicator for neighboring countries — with links to their pages

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.