List of countries by literacy rate

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] List of countries by literacy rate, as included in the United Nations Development Programme Report 2007/2008.Ref|0Ref|1quote|"Adult literacy rate".This Report uses data on adult literacy rates from the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) Institute for Statistics(UIS) April 2007 Assessment (UNESCO Institutefor Statistics 2007a), that combines directnational estimates with recent estimatesbased on its Global age-specific literacy projectionsmodel developed in 2007. The nationalestimates, made available through targeted effortsby UIS to collect recent literacy data fromcountries, are obtained from national censusesor surveys between 1995 and 2005. Where recentestimates are not available, older UIS estimates,produced in July 2002 and based mainlyon national data collected before 1995, havebeen used instead.

Many high-income countries, having attainedhigh levels of literacy, no longer collectbasic literacy statistics and thus are not includedin the UIS data. In calculating the HDI,a literacy rate of 99.0% is assumed for high-incomecountries that do not report adult literacyinformation.

In collecting literacy data, many countriesestimate the number of literate people basedon self-reported data. Some use educational attainmentdata as a proxy, but measures of schoolattendance or grade completion may differ. Becausedefinitions and data collection methodsvary across countries, literacy estimates shouldbe used with caution.| United Nations Development Programme Report 2007/2008.Ref|0Ref|1 page 226

Notes

* United Nations Development Program [http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/ Human Development Report 2007/2008] Table 1.
* Tables in spreadsheet format can be found [http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_20072008_tables.zip here]
* Data refer to national literacy estimates from censuses or surveys conducted between 1995 and 2005, unless otherwise specified. Due to differences in methodology and timeliness of underlying data, comparisons across countries and over time should be made with caution. For more details, see [http://www.uis.unesco.org/] .
* For purposes of calculating the HDI, a value of 99.0% was applied.
* UNICEF 2004.
* UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimates based on its Global Age-specific Literacy Projections model, April 2007.
* In the absence of recent data, estimates from UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2003, based on outdated census or survey information, were used and should be interpreted with caution: Bahamas 95.8, Barbados 99.7, Comoros 56.8, Djibouti 70.3, Eritrea 60.5, Fiji 94.4, Gambia 42.5, Guinea-Bissau 44.8, Guyana 99.0, Haiti 54.8, Hong Kong, China (SAR) 94.6, Hungary 99.4, Lebanon 88.3, Poland 99.8 and Uzbekistan 99.4.
* Data are from national sources.
* Data are from the Secretariat of the Caribbean Community, based on national sources.
* Data refer to 18 of the 25 states of the country only.
* Data refer to North Sudan only.
* UNDP 2006.

ee also

*Literacy
*International Literacy Day