Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Sao Tome and Principe

Literacy rate in Sao Tome and Principe in 2019 — 87.44%. Ranked 39 in the world out of 56. Since 1981, the indicator has risen by 30.12 pp.

2019 87.44% −2.7 pp vs 2012
World rank 39of 56
Period maximum 90.14%2012
Period minimum 57.32%1981

Trend over time

1981–2019 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Sao Tome and Principe, 1981–20195060708090100198119851989199319972001200520092013201720191981: 57.32%1991: 73.24%2001: 84.91%2012: 90.14%2019: 87.44%
Change over the period: +30.12 pp Annual average: 0.79 pp

Comparison, 2019

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Sao Tome and Principe

Sao Tome and Principe 87.44%
World 86.79%
Literacy rate — Sao Tome and Principe, by year Sao Tome and Principe All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2019 87.44
2012 90.14
2001 84.91
1991 73.24
1981 57.32

Middle Africa, 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.