Education · Glossary
Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)
SE.ADT.LITR.ZS
Definition
Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.
Methodology for Education indicators
Education indicators come from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics, national ministries, and school censuses. Enrollment rates can exceed 100% when over-age children are still in school (repeating grades), so "net enrollment" — which counts only age-appropriate students — is often the more interpretable metric. Literacy data is updated infrequently in many countries.
How to interpret
- Always check the unit and reporting year before comparing values across countries.
- NULL or "Not available" means the World Bank did not publish a value — we never estimate.
- Year-over-year changes can be driven by methodology updates, not just real economic shifts.