Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Cuba

Literacy rate in Cuba in 2019 — 97.65%. Ranked 14 in the world out of 56. Since 1981, the indicator has fallen by 0.2 pp.

2019 97.65% −2.02 pp vs 2012
World rank 14of 56
Period maximum 99.8%2002
Period minimum 97.65%2019

Trend over time

1981–2019 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Cuba, 1981–2019979899100198119851989199319972001200520092013201720191981: 97.85%2002: 99.8%2012: 99.67%2019: 97.65%
Change over the period: −0.2 pp Annual average: -0.01 pp

Comparison, 2019

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

Cuba 97.65%
World 86.79%
Literacy rate — Cuba, by year Cuba All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2019 97.65
2012 99.67
2002 99.8
1981 97.85

Caribbean, 2019

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.