Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Gambia

Literacy rate in the Gambia in 2021 — 51.64%. Ranked 40 in the world out of 44. Since 2000, the indicator has risen by 14.82 pp.

2021 51.64% −1.52 pp vs 2018
World rank 40of 44
Period maximum 53.16%2018
Period minimum 36.82%2000

Trend over time

2000–2021 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Gambia, 2000–20213540455055200020032006200920122015201820212000: 36.82%2015: 50.78%2018: 53.16%2021: 51.64%
Change over the period: +14.82 pp Annual average: 0.71 pp

Comparison, 2021

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

Gambia 51.64%
World 87.17%
Literacy rate — Gambia, by year Gambia All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2021 51.64
2018 53.16
2015 50.78
2000 36.82

Western Africa, 2021

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.