Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Mauritania

Literacy rate in Mauritania in 2020 — 59.53%. Ranked 41 in the world out of 42. Since 2000, the indicator has risen by 8.32 pp.

2020 59.53% −5.58 pp vs 2015
World rank 41of 42
Period maximum 65.11%2015
Period minimum 51.21%2000

Trend over time

2000–2020 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Mauritania, 2000–20205055606570200020022004200620082010201220142016201820202000: 51.21%2013: 62.07%2015: 65.11%2020: 59.53%
Change over the period: +8.32 pp Annual average: 0.42 pp

Comparison, 2020

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

Mauritania 59.53%
World 86.98%
Literacy rate — Mauritania, by year Mauritania All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2020 59.53
2015 65.11
2013 62.07
2000 51.21

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.