27 October 2013

National, regional and global literacy trends, 1985-2015

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released a new report on literacy (UIS 2013). The report, Adult and Youth Literacy: National, Regional and Global Trends, 1985-2015, contains a comprehensive overview of literacy data for 151 countries and territories from seven regions: Arab States, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. A summary of the most recent literacy rates and estimates of the illiterate population is accompanied by historical data for the period since 1985 and projections to 2015, the target year of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals.

The table and figure below present adult literacy rates, for the population 25 years and older, at the regional and global level between 1990 and 2015. In spite of persistent illiteracy in some parts of the world - see the article "Adult and youth literacy in 2011" - the adult literacy rate has increased in all regions since 1990. The global adult literacy rate grew from 76% in 1990 to 82% in 2000 and 84% in 2011, the most recent year with data. (In the report, 1990 data refer to the period 1985-1994, 2000 data to the period 1995-2004, and 2011 data to the period 2005-2011.)

Progress at the regional level has varied. In three regions - Arab States, South and West Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa - approximately half of all adults were illiterate in 1990. In the Arab States, the adult literacy rate increased by 22% between 1990 and 2011. In South and West Asia, the adult literacy rate increased by 16% over the same period. In sub-Saharan Africa, progress was much more modest, with an increase in the adult literacy rate of only 6%. East Asia and the Pacific is approaching universal adult literacy, and Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia were already near universal literacy in 1990. No regionally representative data are available for North America and Western Europe.

Adult literacy rate (population 25 years and older) by region, 1990-2015
Region Adult literacy rate (%)
1990 2000 2011 2015 projection 2015 target
Arab States 55.2 67.5 76.9 79.2 83.8
Central and Eastern Europe 96.0 97.4 98.5 98.0 98.7
Central Asia 97.9 99.0 99.5 99.6 99.5
East Asia and the Pacific 81.9 94.5 94.7 95.8 95.8
Latin America and the Caribbean 85.7 89.7 91.6 92.8 94.9
North America and Western Europe - - - - -
South and West Asia 46.7 58.9 62.8 70.4 79.5
Sub-Saharan Africa 53.2 57.2 59.1 63.6 78.6
World 75.7 81.9 84.1 86.1 91.0
Note: 1990 data are for the period 1985-1994, 2000 data are for 1995-2004, 2011 data are for 2005-2011.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2013. "Adult and Youth Literacy: National, Regional and Global Trends, 1985-2015". UIS information paper. Montreal: UIS. http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/literacy-statistics-trends-1985-2015.pdf.

The EFA goals, adopted at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, call for a "50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015" (UNESCO 2005). For monitoring, this goal is typically interpreted to mean a reduction of the adult illiteracy rate by 50% between 2000 and 2015. EFA goals were set for countries, not regions, but for the analysis in the UIS report, target values were also calculated at the regional and global levels. At the global level, for example, halving adult illiteracy between 2000 and 2015 implies a target adult literacy rate of 91% for the year 2015.

Adult literacy rates are projected to increase in almost all regions between 2011 and 2015. The exception is Central and Eastern Europe, where projections indicate a small drop in adult literacy. The global adult literacy rate is projected to reach 86% in 2015, meaning that the target literacy rate would be missed by 5%. As the figure below shows, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to be furthest from the 2015 target, with an estimated adult literacy rate of 64%, 15% below the target of 79%. South and West Asia is projected to reach an adult literacy rate of 70% in 2015, 9% below the target for 2015. Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific are projected to reach or come within one percentage point of the 2015 target.

Adult literacy rate (population 25 years and older) by region, 1990-2015

Notes: (1) Regions sorted by the projected literacy rate of the adult population in 2015. (2) 1990 data are for the period 1985-1994, 2000 data are for 1995-2004, 2011 data are for 2005-2011.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2013. "Adult and Youth Literacy: National, Regional and Global Trends, 1985-2015". UIS information paper. Montreal: UIS. http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/literacy-statistics-trends-1985-2015.pdf.

The UIS report contains more detailed information on adult literacy rates and the adult illiterate population, youth literacy rates (for the population 15-24 years) and the youth illiterate population, historical trends and projections to 2015, a summary of UIS methodology in the area of literacy, and an annex with six statistical tables and 151 figures with national literacy data.

References

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08 September 2013

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.

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Friedrich Huebler, 8 September 2013, Creative Commons License
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28 October 2012

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2012

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012 - Youth and skills: Putting education to work was published by UNESCO on 16 October 2012. As all previous reports, the 2012 edition describes progress towards the six Education for All goals.

  • Goal 1: Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
  • Goal 2: Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
  • Goal 3: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.
  • Goal 4: Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
  • Goal 5: Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
  • Goal 6: Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.

The Global Monitoring Report 2012 also takes a closer look at skills and skill development programs for urban and rural youth.

Reference

  • UNESCO. 2012. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2012 - Youth and skills: Putting education to work. Paris: UNESCO. (Download in PDF format, 8.8 MB)

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Friedrich Huebler, 28 October 2012 (edited 9 March 2014), Creative Commons License
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09 September 2012

Blog translation

Articles on the International Education Statistics blog can now be translated into more than 60 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. To translate an article, select a language from the "Translate" drop-down menu in the sidebar, above the search box.

The translations are provided by Google Translate. They are not always perfect and the formatting of articles is not always preserved. Even so, the translations may be useful for readers who prefer a language other than English.

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31 August 2012

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)

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