Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Tanzania

Literacy rate in Tanzania in 2022 — 78.21%. Ranked 34 in the world out of 45. Since 1988, the indicator has risen by 19.1 pp.

2022 78.21% −4.03 pp vs 2020
World rank 34of 45
Period maximum 82.24%2020
Period minimum 59.11%1988

Trend over time

1988–2022 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Tanzania, 1988–2022506070809019881992199620002004200820122016202020221988: 59.11%2002: 69.43%2012: 78.1%2014: 79.89%2015: 77.89%2020: 82.24%2022: 78.21%
Change over the period: +19.1 pp Annual average: 0.56 pp

Comparison, 2022

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

Tanzania 78.21%
World 87.39%
Literacy rate — Tanzania, by year Tanzania All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2022 78.21
2020 82.24
2015 77.89 −2 pp
2014 79.89
2012 78.1
2002 69.43
1988 59.11

Eastern Africa, 2022

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.