Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Saudi Arabia

Literacy rate in Saudi Arabia in 2024 — 97.93%. Ranked 6 in the world out of 29. Since 1992, the indicator has risen by 27.11 pp.

2024 97.93% +0.34 pp vs 2020
World rank 6of 29
Period maximum 97.93%2024
Period minimum 70.82%1992

Trend over time

1992–2024 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Saudi Arabia, 1992–20247080901001992199620002004200820122016202020241992: 70.82%2000: 79.35%2004: 82.86%2013: 94.43%2017: 95.33%2020: 97.59%2024: 97.93%
Change over the period: +27.11 pp Annual average: 0.85 pp

Comparison, 2024

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

Saudi Arabia 97.93%
World 87.74%
Literacy rate — Saudi Arabia, by year Saudi Arabia All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2024 97.93
2020 97.59
2017 95.33
2013 94.43
2004 82.86
2000 79.35
1992 70.82

Western Asia, 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.