Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Mali

Literacy rate in Mali in 2024 — 35.63%. Ranked 29 in the world out of 29. Since 1976, the indicator has risen by 26.2 pp.

2024 35.63% +0.16 pp vs 2018
World rank 29of 29
Period maximum 35.63%2024
Period minimum 9.43%1976

Trend over time

1976–2024 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Mali, 1976–2024010203040197619811986199119962001200620112016202120241976: 9.43%1998: 19.04%2003: 24%2006: 26.18%2010: 31.1%2011: 30.62%2015: 33.07%2018: 35.47%2024: 35.63%
Change over the period: +26.2 pp Annual average: 0.55 pp

Comparison, 2024

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

Mali 35.63%
World 87.74%
Literacy rate — Mali, by year Mali All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2024 35.63
2018 35.47
2015 33.07
2011 30.62 −0.48 pp
2010 31.1
2006 26.18
2003 24
1998 19.04
1976 9.43

Western Africa, 2024

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.