Adult literacy

The literacy rate is defined as the percentage of the population over 15 years who can read and write.

Literacy campaigns and programs led by UNESCO and the UN have done much to improve literacy levels and world illiteracy has halved over the last 40 years. Yet estimates indicate that between 800 and 1000 million people worldwide still cannot read or write. Illiteracy lowers a persons health and employment prospects and it makes them more expensive to train.

High levels of illiteracy impede economic growth which reduces capital available for education, thus perpetuating a vicious circle of poor education and poverty.