Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Panama

Literacy rate in Panama in 2024 — 96.23%. Ranked 9 in the world out of 29. Since 1980, the indicator has risen by 8.16 pp.

2024 96.23% +0.14 pp vs 2023
World rank 9of 29
Period maximum 96.23%2024
Period minimum 88.07%1980

Trend over time

1980–2024 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Panama, 1980–202487.59092.59597.519801985199019952000200520102015202020241980: 88.07%1990: 88.78%2000: 91.9%2010: 94.09%2018: 95.41%2019: 95.74%2021: 96.21%2023: 96.09%2024: 96.23%
Change over the period: +8.16 pp Annual average: 0.19 pp

Comparison, 2024

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

Panama 96.23%
World 87.74%
Central America computed 93.44%
Literacy rate — Panama, by year Panama All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2024 96.23 +0.14 pp
2023 96.09
2021 96.21
2019 95.74 +0.33 pp
2018 95.41
2010 94.09
2000 91.9
1990 88.78
1980 88.07

Central America, 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.