More children are out of school in poor countries

The rate and number of out-of-school children are strongly correlated with national income: in poorer countries, more children are out of school than in wealthier countries.

The World Bank classifies all countries according to their gross national income (GNI) per capita (World Bank, 2017). The map in Figure 1 shows the distribution of countries by income level according to the July 2016 classification. Low-income countries with the lowest per-capita income are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa.

Figure 1

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Figure 2 shows that the out-of-school rate decreases with increasing national income. Low-income countries have, on average, the highest out-of-school rates, according to estimates by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 19% of all children of primary school age (about 6 to 11 years) are out of school in low-income countries, compared to only 3% in high-income countries. Among adolescents of lower secondary school age (about 12 to 14 years), more than one third (38%) are out of school in low-income countries. The average out-of-school rate is highest for youth of upper secondary school age (about 15 to 17 years) living in low-income countries: nearly two thirds (62%) are not in school.

Figure 2

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

The correlation between national income and exclusion from education can also be demonstrated with national data. Figure 3 plots GNI per capita against the primary out-of-school rate. The highest out-of-school rates are observed among countries with the lowest per-capita income. South Sudan, one of the poorest countries, has the world's highest primary out-of-school rate, with 69%. The absolute number of out-of-school children, indicated by the size of the markers in Figure 3, also tends to be higher in countries with lower national income. The three countries with the largest number of out-of-school children – India, Nigeria and Pakistan – are in the lower-middle-income group of countries. The United States of America stands out as a high-income country with a relatively high rate and number of out-of-school children, but analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics shows that the majority of these children are being homeschooled (Redford et al., 2017).

Figure 3

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

A recent policy paper by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Global Education Monitoring Report (UIS and GEMR, 2017) examines the link between education and poverty. The paper concludes that reaching the Sustainable Development Goal of universal primary and secondary education could reduce the global poverty headcount (measured by the number of persons living on less than $1.90 per day) by more than 420 million, or more than half of the current number.

References

• Redford, Jeremy, Danielle Battle, and Stacey Bielick. 2017. Homeschooling in the United States: 2012. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016096rev.
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), and Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR). 2017. "Reducing Global Poverty through Universal Primary and Secondary Education." Policy paper 32/Fact sheet 44. Montreal and Paris: UIS and GEMR. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002503/250392e.pdf.
• World Bank. 2017. "How Does the World Bank Classify Countries?" World Bank Data Help Desk. Accessed 25 May. https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/378834-how-does-the-world-bank-classify-countries.

External links

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS out-of-school data (UIS Data Centre)
• Global Education Monitoring Report
• World Bank
• National Center for Education Statistics

Related articles

• Regional distribution of children in and out of school
• 124 million out-of-school children in 2013
• Global report on out-of-school children
• Out-of-school children and adolescents, 2000-2012
• Trends in primary school enrollment, 1970-2004
• Universal primary education by 2015: A goal out of reach?
• Global population of primary school age, 2000-2015
• Population structure and children out of school
• National wealth and school enrollment

Friedrich Huebler, 31 July 2017, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2017/07/oos.html

Mean years of schooling in Nepal

On 25 April 2015, Nepal was struck by a severe earthquake that killed more than 8,800 people. Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of US$730 in 2013, similar to Afghanistan and Burkina Faso. Of 187 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) 2014, Nepal was at position 145.

The rank of Nepal on the HDI is partly determined by the low level of education of its population. According to the Human Development Report 2014, the population 25 years and older of Nepal had on average 3.2 years of schooling in 2012.

This article takes a closer look at the level of education of the population of Nepal, based on an analysis of data from a 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). The DHS collected information on the highest grade of school completed for all household members 3 years and older, which can be used to calculate the years of schooling of individuals and the average years of schooling of the entire population or specific sub-groups. According to the DHS data, the population 25 years and older in Nepal has on average 3.3 years of schooling (Figure 1). The duration of primary education in Nepal is 5 years, which means that the average adult 25 years and older has less than completed primary education.

Urban residents have nearly twice as many years of schooling as rural residents, with 5.7 and 2.9 years respectively. There is a strong correlation between mean years of schooling and household wealth. Persons 25 years and older from the poorest household quintile have only 1.1 years of schooling on average, compared to 6.6 years in the richest quintile.

Figure 1: Mean years of schooling, population 25 years and older, Nepal 2011

Data source: Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2011.

Figure 1 also presents data for the development regions and ecological zones of Nepal. The country is administratively divided into five development regions (Far-Western, Mid-Western, Western, Central, and Eastern), 14 administrative zones, and 75 districts. The country is also divided into three ecological zones: Mountain, Hills and Terai. The development regions and ecological zones are shown in Figure 2. The epicenter of the April 2015 earthquake was in the Lamjung district in the Western development region. The capital Kathmandu, which was also severely affected by the earthquake, is in the Central development region.

The population in the Far-Western and Western development regions has 2.6 mean years of schooling, below the national average of 3.3 years. The population of the Western, Central and Eastern development regions is at or slightly above the national average. Residents of the Mountain zone have on average 2.2 years of schooling, while those in the Hill and Terai zone have 3.5 and 3.3 years, respectively.

Gender disparity in educational attainment affects all regions and sub-groups of the population in Figure 1. At the national level, women 25 years and older have only 2.2 years of schooling on average, compared to 4.6 years among men. There is a large gap between the mean years of schooling of men and women in both rural and urban areas of Nepal. Women from the poorest household quintile have only 0.5 mean years of schooling, less than any other group in Figure 1; men in the poorest quintile have 1.9 years of schooling. In the richest quintile, women have on average 6.2 years of schooling, compared to 8.1 years for men. Gender disparity is also present in all development regions and ecological zones.

Figure 2: Development regions, districts, and ecological zones of Nepal

Source: United Nations Nepal Information Platform, retrieved May 2015.

A comparison of different age groups reveals that in spite of the low average years of schooling Nepal has made impressive progress over the past decades. Younger cohorts have without exception more years of schooling than older cohorts (Figure 3). 20- to 24-year-olds have on average 6.9 years of schooling, compared to less than 1 year of schooling among those 65 years and older. In rural areas those 20-24 years old have on average 6.5 years of schooling and those in urban areas 8.5 years. The poorest residents of Nepal are still very much behind those from wealthier segments of the population but even here there has been an improvement among younger generations. 20- to 24-year-olds from the poorest quintile have on average 3.6 years of schooling. In the richest quintile, those aged 20-24 years have 9.6 years of schooling on average, more than any other group in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Mean years of schooling by age group, Nepal 2011

Data source: Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2011.

The disparity between women and men in younger cohorts is also far smaller than among older cohorts. Figure 4 shows two indicators of gender disparity. The difference between the mean years of schooling of men and women is plotted against the left vertical axis. Nationwide, 20- to 24-year-old women have on average 1.9 fewer years of schooling than men in the same age group.The biggest absolute gap is observed in the poorest household quintile; here, women 20-24 years have on average 2.8 fewer years of schooling than men. The smallest difference between male and female years of schooling, 0.7 years, is observed among 20- to 24-year-olds in the richest quintile.

A second indicator of gender disparity, female mean years of schooling as a percentage of male mean years of schooling, is plotted against the right vertical axis of Figure 4. At gender parity, this value is around 100%. In all groups in Figure 4, younger women are approaching the average years of schooling of men in the same age group. In Nepal as a whole, 20- to 24-year-old women have on average 76% of the years of schooling of their male peers. In the richest quintile, the youngest women have reached 93% of the years of schooling of men in the same age group. By contrast, young women from the poorest household quintile have only half the years of schooling of young men.

Over time, the increasing educational attainment among younger age groups will be reflected in the mean years of schooling of the entire population 25 years and older. Similarly, the gap between men and women will shrink. However, those in poor households and residents of certain regions - especially the Far-Western and Mid-Western region and the mountain zone - are lagging behind other parts of Nepal.

Figure 4: Gender disparity in mean years of schooling by age group, Nepal 2011

Data source: Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2011.

External links

• Nepal (Wikipedia)
• Nepal earthquake, April 2015 (Wikipedia)
• Development regions of Nepal (Wikipedia)
• Geography of Nepal (Wikipedia)
• Ecological zone map of Nepal (UN Nepal Information Platform)
• Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), 2011
• Human Development Report 2014 (UN Development Programme)
• Human Development Index and its components (UN Development Programme)
• GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$) (World Bank)
• Duration by level of education (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)

Related articles

• Caste, ethnicity, and school attendance in Nepal
• Nepal: trends in primary education, 1980-2004
• Primary and secondary school attendance in Nepal
• Primary school attendance in Nepal, 1996-2006
• Secondary school attendance in Nepal, 1996-2006
• Mean years of schooling
• Mean years of schooling in Burkina Faso
• Educational attainment in India, 1950-2000
• Educational attainment in sub-Saharan Africa
• Educational attainment in Brazil since 1920
• Educational attainment in the United States, 1940-2009
• Poverty and educational attainment in the United States
• Poverty and educational attainment in the United States, part 2

Friedrich Huebler, 31 May 2015, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2015/05/nepal.html

Adult and youth literacy in 2011

8 September is International Literacy Day, an occasion to reflect on the status of literacy worldwide. Globally, 84% of all adults 15 years and older were able to read and write in 2011, the most recent year for which the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released data (see Table 1). Two regions, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, are near universal literacy, with adult literacy rates of 99% and 100%, respectively. Literacy rates are assumed to be at a similarly high level in North America and Western Europe but data coverage is insufficient for the calculation of a regional average. Literacy rates are also high in East Asia and the Pacific (95%) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (92%). In the remaining regions, adult literacy rates are below the global average: Arab States (77%), South and West Asia (63%), and sub-Saharan Africa (59%).

Male and female adult literacy rates are at nearly the same levels in three regions: Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (see Table 1). In the Arab States, East Asia and the Pacific, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, female literacy rates are lower than male literacy rates. The gender parity index (GPI), the ratio of the female over the male literacy rate, shows that the biggest gender gap exists in South and West Asia (GPI 0.70) and in sub-Saharan Africa (GPI 0.74). Globally, the male literacy rate is 89% and the female literacy rate 80%, which yields a GPI of 0.90, far below the range of gender parity with GPI values between 0.97 and 1.03.

Table 1: Adult and youth literacy rate, 2011

Region	Adult literacy rate (%)				Youth literacy rate (%)
	Total	Male	Female	GPI	Total	Male	Female	GPI
Arab States	76.9	84.7	68.4	0.81	89.9	93.2	86.5	0.93
Central and Eastern Europe	98.5	99.3	97.8	0.99	99.3	99.5	99.2	1.00
Central Asia	99.5	99.6	99.4	1.00	99.7	99.6	99.8	1.00
East Asia and the Pacific	94.7	96.9	92.5	0.95	98.9	98.9	98.8	1.00
Latin America and the Caribbean	91.6	92.2	90.9	0.99	97.1	96.8	97.4	1.01
North America and Western Europe	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
South and West Asia	62.8	74.0	51.9	0.70	80.7	86.8	74.9	0.86
Sub-Saharan Africa	59.1	68.1	50.6	0.74	69.5	75.6	63.7	0.84
World	84.1	88.6	79.9	0.90	89.5	92.2	86.8	0.94

Note: GPI = gender parity index.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, September 2013.

National adult literacy rates are displayed in Figure 1. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia have generally lower literacy rates than countries in other regions. In 11 countries, nearly all in sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than half of all adults are able to read and write: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

Figure 1: Adult literacy rate, 2011

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, September 2013. - Click image to enlarge.

The UIS estimates that the adult illiterate population was 774 million in 2011 (see Table 2). Three out of four illiterate adults live in only two regions: South and West Asia (407 million) and sub-Saharan Africa (182 million). In all regions, the number of illiterate women is larger than the number of illiterate men. Globally, 493 million or two thirds of the adult illiterate population are female.

Table 2: Adult and youth illiterate population, 2011

Region	Adult illiterate population (000)				Youth illiterate population (000)
	Total	Male	Female	% female	Total	Male	Female	% female
Arab States	47,603	16,082	31,521	66.2	6,037	2,099	3,938	65.2
Central and Eastern Europe	4,919	1,104	3,815	77.5	386	157	229	59.4
Central Asia	290	108	182	62.7	45	30	14	32.5
East Asia and the Pacific	89,478	26,356	63,122	70.5	4,081	2,005	2,076	50.9
Latin America and the Caribbean	35,614	15,994	19,620	55.1	3,043	1,676	1,367	44.9
North America and Western Europe	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
South and West Asia	407,021	147,352	259,669	63.8	61,778	22,316	39,461	63.9
Sub-Saharan Africa	181,950	70,535	111,414	61.2	47,558	19,196	28,362	59.6
World	773,549	280,366	493,184	63.8	123,198	47,626	75,571	61.3

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, September 2013.

The global youth literacy rate, for the population 15 to 24 years of age, was 90% in 2011 (see Table 1). Youth literacy rates are higher than adult literacy rates in all regions, a result of increased levels of school attendance among younger generations. Of the regions with data, four are near universal youth literacy: Central and Eastern Europe (99%), Central Asia (100%), East Asia and the Pacific (99%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (97%). In the Arab States, the youth literacy rate is 90%. In South and West Asia (81%) and sub-Saharan Africa (70%), the youth literacy rate is below the global average.

Literacy rates among the population 15-24 years are not only higher than among the total population 15 years and older, there is also a smaller gap between the literacy rates of young men and women (see Table 1). However, gender disparity in youth literacy is observed in the Arab States (GPI 0.93), South and West Asia (GPI 0.86), and sub-Saharan Africa (GPI 0.84); in these regions, young women are less likely to be able to read and write than young men. At the global level, the male youth literacy rate is 92% and the female youth literacy rate 87%.

National youth literacy rates are displayed in Figure 2. Sub-Saharan Africa stands out as the one region where youth literacy rates are significantly lower than in other regions. Seven countries have youth literacy rates below 50%: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Niger.

Figure 2: Youth literacy rate, 2011

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, September 2013. - Click image to enlarge.

The youth illiterate population, a subset of the adult illiterate population, was estimated at 123 million in 2011 (see Table 2). Illiterate youth are concentrated in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; 89% of the global population of illiterate youth live in these two regions. Whereas women are the majority of illiterate adults in all regions, there is no such clear pattern among illiterate youth. In two regions, Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, young men are more likely to lack basic reading and writing skills than young women. Even so, 61% of the global number of illiterate youth are female.

More detailed statistics and analysis are available from the the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, including a page with an interactive world map with adult and youth literacy rates, a fact sheet on adult and youth literacy, an infographic for International Literacy Day 2013, and a report on national, regional and global trends in adult and youth literacy between 1985 and 2015.

Related articles

• Adult and youth literacy in 2010
• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Disparity between male and female literacy rates
• Disparity between adult and youth literacy
• Years of schooling and literacy: Can everyone with primary education read and write?
• Years of schooling and literacy, part 2
• Adult literacy in sub-Saharan Africa
• Reported and tested literacy in Nigeria
• Adult literacy in Nigeria

External links

• International Literacy Day
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre
• UIS page for International Literacy Day 2013, with interactive world map with adult and youth literacy rates
• UIS fact sheet on adult and youth literacy, September 2013 (PDF, 176 KB)
• UIS infographic for International Literacy Day 2013 (PDF, 752 KB)
• UIS report Adult and Youth Literacy: National, Regional and Global Trends, 1985-2015, June 2013 (PDF, 940 KB)

Friedrich Huebler, 8 September 2013, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2013/09/literacy.html

Guide to creating maps with Stata

Most charts and maps on this site were created with the Stata statistical software package. This guide explains how maps like those with adult and youth literacy rates in 2010 can be created with Stata. The article supersedes an earlier version from 2005 and introduces updated maps with current country borders. For example, South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, is shown as a separate country on the new maps. The instructions below are for Stata version 9 or later. Users of Stata 8 are referred to the guide from 2005. The creation of maps is not supported in older versions of Stata.

Requirements

• Stata version 9.2 or later.
• spmap: Stata module for drawing thematic maps, by Maurizio Pisati. spmap can be installed in Stata with this command:
    ssc install spmap
• shp2dta: Stata module for converting shapefiles to Stata format, by Kevin Crow. shp2dta can be installed in Stata with this command:
    ssc install shp2dta
• Shapefile: A shapefile is a data format for geographic information systems. For the maps in Figures 1 and 2, please download this public domain shapefile from Natural Earth:
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip (184 KB, world map with country borders, scale 1:110,000,000)
• Note: The instructions are accurate for Natural Earth maps version 2.0.0, the most recent version of the maps available in April 2014.

Step 1: Convert shapefile to Stata format

• Unzip ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip to a folder that is visible to Stata, for example the current working directory of Stata. The archive contains six files:
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.dbf
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.prj
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.shp
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.shx
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.README.html
  ne_110m_admin_0_countries.VERSION.txt
• Start Stata and run this command:
    shp2dta using ne_110m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata) coor(worldcoor) genid(id)
• Two new files will be created: worlddata.dta (with the country names and other information) and worldcoor.dta (with the coordinates of the country boundaries).
• If you plan to superimpose labels on a map, for example country names, run the following command instead, which adds centroid coordinates to the file worlddata.dta:
    shp2dta using ne_110m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata) coor(worldcoor) genid(id) genc(c)
• Please refer to the spmap documentation to learn more about labels.
• The DBF, PRJ, SHP, and SHX files are no longer needed and can be deleted.

Step 2: Draw map with Stata

• Open worlddata.dta in Stata.
• For the example maps, create a variable with the length of each country's name. The Stata command for this is:
    generate length = length(admin)
• Draw a map that indicates the length of all country names with this command:
    spmap length using worldcoor.dta, id(id)
• The default map (Figure 1) is grayscale, it shows Antarctica, there are four classes for the length of the country names, the legend is very small, and the legend values are arranged from high to low.

Figure 1: Length of country names (small scale map, default style)

Click image to enlarge.

• A second map without Antarctica, with a blue palette, five classes, and with a bigger legend with values arranged from low to high (Figure 2) can be drawn with this command:
    spmap length using worldcoor.dta if admin!="Antarctica", id(id) fcolor(Blues) clnumber(5) legend(symy(*2) symx(*2) size(*2)) legorder(lohi)
• Darker colors on the map indicate longer country names, ranging from 4 (for example Cuba and Fiji) to 35 characters (French Southern and Antarctic Lands).
• Please read the Stata help file for spmap to learn about the many additional options for customization of maps.

Figure 2: Length of country names (small scale map, blue palette)

Click image to enlarge.

Alternative maps with more detail

The shapefile that was used for Figures 1 and 2 was designed for small maps. It contains the borders for 177 countries and territories and does not include smaller geographic units like Hong Kong, Monaco, or St. Vincent and the Grenadines. As an alternative to the small scale map in Figures 1 and 2, Natural Earth offers shapefiles with more detail that were designed for larger maps.

• To create the map in Figure 3, download this shapefile from Natural Earth, which has information for 241 countries and territories:
  ne_50m_admin_0_countries.zip (799 KB, world map with country borders, scale 1:50,000,000)
• Unzip ne_50m_admin_0_countries.zip to a folder that is visible to Stata.
• Run this Stata command to convert the shapefile to Stata format:
    shp2dta using ne_50m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata2) coor(worldcoor2) genid(id)
• If you need Stata files with centroids, run this command instead:
    shp2dta using ne_50m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata2) coor(worldcoor2) genid(id) genc(c)
• Open worlddata2.dta in Stata.
• Create a variable with the length of each country's name:
    generate length = length(admin)
• Draw the map in Figure 3:
    spmap length using worldcoor2.dta if admin!="Antarctica", id(id) fcolor(Blues) clnumber(5) legend(symy(*2) symx(*2) size(*2)) legorder(lohi)
• The map takes longer to draw than the map in Figures 1 and 2 because it is more detailed and shows more geographic units. The names of the countries and territories on the map have a length up to 40 characters (South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands).

Figure 3: Length of country names (medium scale map)

Click image to enlarge.

• To create the map in Figure 4, download this shapefile from Natural Earth, which has information for 255 countries and territories, including small islands like the Ashmore and Cartier Islands:
  ne_10m_admin_0_countries.zip (5.1 MB, world map with country borders, scale 1:10,000,000)
• Unzip ne_10m_admin_0_countries.zip to a folder that is visible to Stata.
• Run this Stata command to convert the shapefile to Stata format:
    shp2dta using ne_10m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata3) coor(worldcoor3) genid(id)
• If you need Stata files with centroids, run this command instead:
    shp2dta using ne_10m_admin_0_countries, data(worlddata3) coor(worldcoor3) genid(id) genc(c)
• Open worlddata3.dta in Stata.
• Create a variable with the length of each country's name:
    generate length = length(ADMIN)
• Draw the map in Figure 4:
    spmap length using worldcoor3.dta if ADMIN!="Antarctica", id(id) fcolor(Blues) clnumber(5) legend(symy(*2) symx(*2) size(*2)) legorder(lohi)
• The map takes longer to draw than the maps in Figures 1, 2 and 3 because it has the largest amount of detail. The differences between the maps in Figures 3 and 4 can be seen by clicking on the images to enlarge them. Figure 4 has more islands and more detailed shorelines. The names of the countries and territories on the map in Figure 4 have a length up to 40 characters (South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands).

Figure 4: Length of country names (large scale map)

Click image to enlarge.

Software used in this guide

• Stata: statistical software package
• spmap: Stata module for drawing thematic maps, by Maurizio Pisati
• shp2dta: Stata module for converting shapefiles to Stata format, by Kevin Crow
• ne_110m_admin_0_countries.zip: small scale (1:110,000,000) Natural Earth world map with country borders (184 KB)
• ne_50m_admin_0_countries.zip: medium scale (1:50,000,000) Natural Earth world map with country borders (799 KB)
• ne_10m_admin_0_countries.zip: large scale (1:10,000,000) Natural Earth world map with country borders (5.1 MB)

Related articles

• Adult and youth literacy in 2010
• Guide to creating maps with Stata (previous version of this guide, from 2005)
• Guide to integrating Stata and external text editors

External links

• Natural Earth maps (public domain shapefiles)
• Stata FAQ: How do I graph data onto a map with spmap?
• Shapefile (Wikipedia)
• Geographic information system (Wikipedia)
• Centroid (Wikipedia)

Friedrich Huebler, 31 August 2012 (edited 18 April 2015), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2012/08/stata-maps.html

Adult and youth literacy in 2010

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) released new literacy data in April 2012, with updated estimates of adult and youth literacy. In 2010, the latest year with data, 84% of the global population 15 years and older were estimated to be able to read and write (see Table 1). At the regional level, literacy rates are highest in Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In these regions at least 9 out of 10 adults are literate. Literacy rates can be assumed to be as high in North America and Western Europe but not enough countries in that region collect literacy data to allow the calculation of a regional average. By contrast, adult literacy rates are significantly lower in the Arab States (75%), and in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa (63% in both regions). Women are considerably less likely to be literate than men in the Arab States, East Asia and the Pacific, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, the female adult literacy rate was estimated to be 80% in 2010, compared to a literacy rate of 89% for men. As a consequence, nearly two thirds (497 million) of the adult illiterate population in 2010 (775 million) were women.

Table 1: Adult and youth literacy rate, 2010

Region	Adult literacy rate (%)			Youth literacy rate (%)
	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
Arab States	74.7	83.3	65.7	89.1	92.4	85.6
Central Asia	99.5	99.6	99.4	99.7	99.6	99.8
Central and Eastern Europe	97.9	99.0	97.0	99.1	99.3	98.9
East Asia and the Pacific	94.2	96.7	91.6	98.8	98.9	98.7
Latin America and the Caribbean	91.4	92.1	90.7	97.2	97.0	97.4
North America and Western Europe	-	-	-	-	-	-
South and West Asia	62.7	74.0	51.8	80.5	86.6	74.7
Sub-Saharan Africa	62.6	71.0	54.2	71.8	76.4	66.8
World	84.1	88.6	79.7	89.6	92.2	87.1

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, April 2012

The disparities between regions with high and low literacy rates are readily apparent from the map in Figure 1, which displays the average literacy rate in the seven Education for All (EFA) regions with data listed in Table 1. For a description of the regional groupings, please refer to a past article about the EFA regions on this website.

Figure 1: Regional adult literacy rate, 2010

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, April 2012. - Click image to enlarge.

Youth literacy rates, for the population 15 to 24 years of age, are higher than adult literacy rates in all regions as a result of improved access to education among younger generations. Globally, 90% of all youth are able to read and write. Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean have reached or are approaching universal literacy among their young population. The same can be assumed for North America and Western Europe, but no regional average is available from the UIS (see Table 1 and Figure 2). The disparity in literacy rates between men and women is generally smaller among the population 15 to 24 years than among the population 15 years and older. Yet, in the Arab States, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, young women remain less likely to be able to read and write than young men. The global youth literacy rate in 2010 was 92% for men and 87% for women.

Figure 2: Regional youth literacy rate, 2010

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, April 2012. - Click image to enlarge.

The regional averages can conceal large differences between countries within a region. This is particularly true for the adult literacy rate in the Arab States, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa (see Figure 3). In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the adult literacy rate is below 30% in Burkina Faso and Niger - the countries with the least literate population worldwide - and above 90% in Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles, and Zimbabwe.

Figure 3: Adult literacy rate, 2010

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, April 2012. - Click image to enlarge.

Disparities between countries within a region can also be observed for the youth literacy rate, but to a lesser degree than for the adult literacy rate (see Figure 4). Similar to the adult literacy rate, the greatest disparities exist in sub-Saharan Africa, where youth literacy rates range from 37% in Niger to 99% in the Seychelles and Zimbabwe.

Figure 4: Youth literacy rate, 2010

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Data Centre, April 2012. - Click image to enlarge.

To make it easier to explore its literacy data, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics has created an interactive visualization that combines a map showing adult and youth literacy rates, a graph with literacy rates by sex, and a scatter plot with the correlation between GDP per capita and literacy. A screenshot of the visualization is shown in Figure 5. The full visualization is available on the website of the UIS. Literacy data are also contained in the recently published World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education by UNESCO.

Figure 5: UIS data visualization with adult and youth literacy rate, 2010

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, May 2012. - Click image to enlarge.

Related articles

• Education for All regions
• Adult and youth literacy in 2009
• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Disparity between male and female literacy rates
• Disparity between adult and youth literacy
• Years of schooling and literacy: Can everyone with primary education read and write?
• Years of schooling and literacy, part 2
• Adult literacy in sub-Saharan Africa
• Reported and tested literacy in Nigeria
• Adult literacy in Nigeria
• World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education

External links

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre
• UIS data visualization on adult and youth literacy

Friedrich Huebler, 31 May 2012 (edited 1 June 2012), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2012/05/literacy.html

World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education

UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) have published a new World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education that illustrates the participation of girls and boys in pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The data show that there has been significant progress towards gender parity since the 1970s. Two thirds of all countries have reached gender parity in primary education but at the secondary level of education girls are still lagging behind. In some countries, girls have the advantage with regard to access to and completion of education. At the tertiary level, female students outnumber male students in many high-income countries.

The atlas is divided into eight chapters that contain a total of 28 maps and close to 100 charts and tables:

1. Increased worldwide demand for quality schooling
2. Girls’ right to education
3. Enrolment and gender trends: primary education
4. Enrolment and gender trends: secondary education
5. Enrolment and gender trends: tertiary education
6. Trends in school-life expectancy
7. Gender trends: adult and youth literacy
8. How policies affect gender equality in education

An excerpt from Chapter 7 on literacy is shown below. The map (please click the image for a larger view) visualizes adult literacy rates from the database of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Among countries with data, literacy rates are lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The highest adult literacy rates are observed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. For many developed countries, the adult literacy rate is unknown because these countries have achieved universal primary education and no longer report data on the traditional literate-illiterate dichotomy, focusing instead on the more narrowly defined concept of functional literacy.

The atlas is available in English, French and Spanish. In addition, UNESCO and UIS plan to launch an online e-atlas with interactive maps.

Excerpt from World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education: Map with adult literacy rates

Source: UNESCO, 2012, World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, pages 92-93. - Click image to enlarge.

Reference

• UNESCO. 2012. World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education. Paris: UNESCO. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)

External links

• UNESCO
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UNESCO announcement of the atlas
• UIS announcement of the atlas
• UIS Data Centre

Related articles

• Global Education Digest 2011
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
• Adult and youth literacy in 2009
• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy

Friedrich Huebler, 31 March 2012, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2012/03/atlas.html

Adult and youth literacy in 2009

8 September was International Literacy Day. On this occasion, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) released a fact sheet with estimates of adult and youth literacy in 2009, the most recent year with data.

The global adult literacy rate, for the population 15 years and older, was 83.7% in 2009, compared to 83.4% in 2008. The adult illiterate population fell from 796.2 million in 2008 to 793.1 million in 2009. 64.1% of the adult illiterate population were women. Adult literacy rates are lowest in sub-Saharan African and in South and West Asia (see Figure 1). In 11 countries, less than half of the adult population were able to read and write: Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Haiti, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Figure 1: Adult literacy rate, 2009

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2011

Youth literacy rates - for the population 15 to 24 years - are generally higher than adult literacy rates, due to increased school attendance rates among younger generations. The global youth literacy rate was 89.3% in 2009, compared to 89.0% in 2008. The youth illiterate population fell from 130.6 million in 2008 to 127.3 million in 2009. Youth literacy rates are lowest in sub-Saharan Africa (see Figure 2) and the five countries worldwide with youth literacy rates below 50% are from this region: Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and Niger.

Figure 2: Youth literacy rate, 2009

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2011

Reference

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2011. Adult and youth literacy. UIS fact sheet no. 16, September. Montreal: UIS. (Download in PDF format, 350 KB)

Related articles

• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Literacy data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics
• Adult literacy in 2007
• Disparity between male and female literacy rates
• Disparity between adult and youth literacy
• Adult literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

External links

• International Literacy Day (UNESCO)
• Literacy data (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)

Friedrich Huebler, 30 September 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/09/literacy.html

Education for All regions

For monitoring of progress towards the six Education for All (EFA) goals, the world has been divided into eight EFA regions:

• North America and Western Europe
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Central Asia
• East Asia and the Pacific
• South and West Asia
• Arab States
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Latin America and the Caribbean

These regions, shown in the map below, are used in publications like the EFA Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO or the Global Education Digest by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Regions for monitoring of Education for All goals


Combined, the eight EFA regions cover 204 countries and territories. Two EFA regions - East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean - are further divided into two sub-regions.

Composition of EFA regions

• North America and Western Europe (26 countries and territories)
  Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
• Central and Eastern Europe (21 countries)
  Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine.
• Central Asia (9 countries)
  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
• East Asia and the Pacific (33 countries and territories)
  East Asia (16 countries and territories)
  Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Macao (China), Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam.
  Pacific (17 countries and territories)
  Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
• South and West Asia (9 countries)
  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
• Arab States (20 countries and territories)
  Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
• Sub-Saharan Africa (45 countries)
  Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Latin America and the Caribbean (41 countries and territories)
  Latin America (19 countries)
  Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).
  Caribbean (22 countries and territories)
  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

References

• UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. Annex, p. 269. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2010. Global education digest 2010: Comparing education statistics across the world. Montreal: UIS. Annex, p. 274-275. (Download in PDF format, 8 MB)

Related articles

• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
• Global Education Digest 2010
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Children of primary and secondary school age out of school
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy

External links

• Education for All (EFA)
• EFA goals
• UNESCO education
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre

Friedrich Huebler, 26 March 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/03/efa.html

Primary school entrance age and duration

Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) both aim at universal primary education. All children worldwide should attend and complete primary school by 2015. However, national education systems differ and the meaning of primary education for all children therefore varies from country to country.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) maintains a database with the entrance age and duration of primary education for 204 countries and territories. Table 1 summarizes the distribution of primary school entrance ages from the UIS database. In nearly two thirds of all countries, children are expected to enter primary school when they are 6 years old. In a further third of countries, the entrance age is 5 or 7 years. Two countries have different primary school entrance ages, Ireland with 4 years and Mongolia with 8 years..

Table 1: Primary school entrance age

Age	Countries	Percent
4 years	1	0.5
5 years	29	14.2
6 years	126	61.8
7 years	47	23.0
8 years	1	0.5
Total	204	100.0

Source: UIS Data Centre, May 2010.

The geographic distribution of the entrance ages is shown in the map in Figure 1. 6 years is the common primary school start age in most of North and South America, Western Europe, Africa, the Arab States, and East Asia, with some exceptions. 7 years is more common in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. 7 years is also the primary school start age in some large countries: Brazil, China and Russia.

Figure 1: Primary school entrance age

Source: UIS Data Centre, May 2010.

The duration of primary school, shown in Table 2, ranges from 3 to 8 years. In 126 of 204 countries and territories, primary school has a duration of 6 years. In about 25 countries each, the duration is 4, 5 or 7 years. The shortest duration, 3 years, is reported for Armenia, Russia and Turkmenistan. In Ireland, which has the earliest entrance age with 4 years, children have to attend primary school for 8 years.

Table 2: Primary school duration

Age	Countries	Percent
3 years	3	1.5
4 years	26	12.8
5 years	23	11.3
6 years	126	61.8
7 years	25	12.3
8 years	1	0.5
Total	204	100.0

Source: UIS Data Centre, May 2010.

The map in Figure 2 illustrates the primary school duration by country. 6 years is the most frequent duration in North and South America, East Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States and most of Africa except for Southern Africa, where 7 years is the most common primary school duration. In Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South and West Asia, primary education is typically shorter, with a duration of 4 or 5 years.

Figure 2: Primary school duration

Source: UIS Data Centre, May 2010.

What are the implications of the different primary school entrance ages and durations for the MDG and EFA goal of universal primary education by 2015? The official duration of primary education is closely linked to the number of children out of school. As an example, assume that a country has a primary school duration of 5 years and that the number of children in and out of school is evenly distributed across the official primary school ages. Shortening the duration of primary school from 5 to 4 years would immediately reduce the number of children out of school by 20 percent. However, the primary school net enrollment rate, the official indicator for the MDG of universal primary education, would not change and the country would therefore not be closer to the 2015 goal.

Related articles

• Official school ages: primary, secondary, and compulsory education
• Children of primary and secondary school age out of school
• NER, GER and universal primary education
• Universal primary education by 2015: A goal out of reach?
• Trends in primary school enrollment, 1970-2004
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy
• Official MDG targets and indicators

External links

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre
• Education for All goals
• Millennium Development Goals

Friedrich Huebler, 30 May 2010, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2010/05/age.html