Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Southern Asia

Literacy rate in Southern Asia in 2021 — 73.95%. Since 2011, the indicator has risen by 7.41 pp.

2021 73.95% +0.43 pp vs 2019
World rank
Period maximum 73.95%2021
Period minimum 66.54%2011

Trend over time

2011–2021 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Southern Asia, 2011–20216668707274201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212011: 66.54%2017: 69.59%2019: 73.52%2021: 73.95%
Change over the period: +7.41 pp Annual average: 0.74 pp

Comparison, 2021

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

Southern Asia 73.95%
World 87.17%
Literacy rate — Southern Asia, by year Southern Asia All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2021 73.95
2019 73.52
2017 69.59
2011 66.54

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.