{"id": 791795, "name": "Share of population aged 15+ literate, 1820-2020", "unit": "%", "createdAt": "2023-08-15T14:56:48.000Z", "updatedAt": "2025-06-18T11:09:18.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1820-2023", "datasetId": 6184, "shortUnit": "%", "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "literacy", "catalogPath": "grapher/education/2023-08-14/oecd_education/oecd_education#literacy", "descriptionShort": "Percentage of people aged 15 and above who can read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.", "descriptionFromProducer": "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.\n\nWorld Bank variable id: PRJ.ATT.15UP.NED.MF.\n\nOriginal source: Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/vid/dataexplorer/.\n", "descriptionProcessing": "Historical data from van Zanden, J. et al. (2014) with estimates from 1820 to 2010 was combined with literacy estimates from World Bank.", "type": "float", "dataChecksum": "10699979078165569493", "metadataChecksum": "4234313621929260179", "datasetName": "How Was Life? Global Well-being since 1820 and World Bank", "datasetVersion": "2023-08-14", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"unit": "%", "shortUnit": "%", "numDecimalPlaces": 2}, "schemaVersion": 2, "processingLevel": "major", "presentation": {"topicTagsLinks": ["Global Education"]}, "dimensions": {"years": {"values": [{"id": 1870}, {"id": 1880}, {"id": 1890}, {"id": 1900}, {"id": 1910}, {"id": 1920}, {"id": 1930}, {"id": 1940}, {"id": 1950}, {"id": 1960}, {"id": 1970}, {"id": 1980}, {"id": 1990}, {"id": 2000}, {"id": 1820}, {"id": 2011}, {"id": 2015}, {"id": 2021}, {"id": 2008}, {"id": 2012}, {"id": 2017}, {"id": 2022}, {"id": 2006}, {"id": 2018}, {"id": 2014}, {"id": 2007}, {"id": 2009}, {"id": 2010}, {"id": 2013}, {"id": 2016}, {"id": 2019}, {"id": 2020}, {"id": 2023}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 355, "name": "World", "code": "OWID_WRL"}, {"id": 15, "name": "Afghanistan", "code": "AFG"}, {"id": 16, "name": "Albania", "code": "ALB"}, {"id": 17, "name": "Algeria", "code": "DZA"}, {"id": 19, "name": "Angola", "code": "AGO"}, {"id": 367395, "name": "Arab World (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 22, "name": "Armenia", "code": "ARM"}, {"id": 219, "name": "Aruba", "code": "ABW"}, {"id": 25, "name": "Azerbaijan", "code": "AZE"}, {"id": 27, "name": "Bahrain", "code": "BHR"}, {"id": 28, "name": "Bangladesh", "code": "BGD"}, {"id": 30, "name": "Belarus", "code": "BLR"}, {"id": 31, "name": "Belize", "code": "BLZ"}, {"id": 32, "name": "Benin", "code": "BEN"}, {"id": 33, "name": "Bhutan", "code": "BTN"}, {"id": 34, "name": "Bolivia", "code": "BOL"}, {"id": 35, "name": "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "code": "BIH"}, {"id": 36, "name": "Botswana", "code": "BWA"}, {"id": 37, "name": "Brazil", "code": "BRA"}, {"id": 38, "name": "Brunei", "code": "BRN"}, {"id": 39, "name": "Bulgaria", "code": "BGR"}, {"id": 40, "name": "Burkina Faso", "code": "BFA"}, {"id": 41, "name": "Burundi", "code": "BDI"}, {"id": 42, "name": "Cambodia", "code": "KHM"}, {"id": 43, "name": "Cameroon", "code": "CMR"}, {"id": 45, "name": "Cape Verde", "code": "CPV"}, {"id": 197, "name": "Cayman Islands", "code": "CYM"}, {"id": 174, "name": "Central African Republic", "code": "CAF"}, {"id": 367400, "name": "Central Europe and the Baltics (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 173, "name": "Chad", "code": "TCD"}, {"id": 172, "name": "Chile", "code": "CHL"}, {"id": 171, "name": "China", "code": "CHN"}, {"id": 170, "name": "Colombia", "code": "COL"}, {"id": 169, "name": "Comoros", "code": "COM"}, {"id": 168, "name": "Congo", "code": "COG"}, {"id": 166, "name": "Costa Rica", "code": "CRI"}, {"id": 143, "name": "Cote d'Ivoire", "code": "CIV"}, {"id": 165, "name": "Croatia", "code": "HRV"}, {"id": 164, "name": "Cuba", "code": "CUB"}, {"id": 163, "name": "Cyprus", "code": "CYP"}, {"id": 167, "name": "Democratic Republic of Congo", "code": "COD"}, {"id": 160, "name": "Dominican Republic", "code": "DOM"}, {"id": 367396, "name": "East Asia and the Pacific (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 225, "name": "East Timor", "code": "TLS"}, {"id": 201, "name": "Ecuador", "code": "ECU"}, {"id": 65, "name": "Egypt", "code": "EGY"}, {"id": 259, "name": "El Salvador", "code": "SLV"}, {"id": 159, "name": "Equatorial Guinea", "code": "GNQ"}, {"id": 157, "name": "Eritrea", "code": "ERI"}, {"id": 156, "name": "Estonia", "code": "EST"}, {"id": 78, "name": "Eswatini", "code": "SWZ"}, {"id": 158, "name": "Ethiopia", "code": "ETH"}, {"id": 349171, "name": "Europe and Central Asia (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 153, "name": "Gabon", "code": "GAB"}, {"id": 151, "name": "Gambia", "code": "GMB"}, {"id": 152, "name": "Georgia", "code": "GEO"}, {"id": 150, "name": "Ghana", "code": "GHA"}, {"id": 149, "name": "Greece", "code": "GRC"}, {"id": 148, "name": "Guatemala", "code": "GTM"}, {"id": 147, "name": "Guinea", "code": "GIN"}, {"id": 94, "name": "Guinea-Bissau", "code": "GNB"}, {"id": 146, "name": "Guyana", "code": "GUY"}, {"id": 145, "name": "Haiti", "code": "HTI"}, {"id": 139, "name": "Honduras", "code": "HND"}, {"id": 138, "name": "Hungary", "code": "HUN"}, {"id": 137, "name": "India", "code": "IND"}, {"id": 136, "name": "Indonesia", "code": "IDN"}, {"id": 135, "name": "Iran", "code": "IRN"}, {"id": 134, "name": "Iraq", "code": "IRQ"}, {"id": 8, "name": "Italy", "code": "ITA"}, {"id": 130, "name": "Jordan", "code": "JOR"}, {"id": 131, "name": "Kazakhstan", "code": "KAZ"}, {"id": 129, "name": "Kenya", "code": "KEN"}, {"id": 204, "name": "Kiribati", "code": "KIR"}, {"id": 208, "name": "Kuwait", "code": "KWT"}, {"id": 126, "name": "Kyrgyzstan", "code": "KGZ"}, {"id": 125, "name": "Laos", "code": "LAO"}, {"id": 349170, "name": "Latin America and Caribbean (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 122, "name": "Latvia", "code": "LVA"}, {"id": 124, "name": "Lebanon", "code": "LBN"}, {"id": 123, "name": "Lesotho", "code": "LSO"}, {"id": 121, "name": "Liberia", "code": "LBR"}, {"id": 119, "name": "Lithuania", "code": "LTU"}, {"id": 461, "name": "Low-income countries", "code": null}, {"id": 460, "name": "Lower-middle-income countries", "code": null}, {"id": 262, "name": "Macao", "code": "MAC"}, {"id": 118, "name": "Madagascar", "code": "MDG"}, {"id": 117, "name": "Malawi", "code": "MWI"}, {"id": 116, "name": "Malaysia", "code": "MYS"}, {"id": 211, "name": "Maldives", "code": "MDV"}, {"id": 115, "name": "Mali", "code": "MLI"}, {"id": 212, "name": "Malta", "code": "MLT"}, {"id": 223, "name": "Marshall Islands", "code": "MHL"}, {"id": 114, "name": "Mauritania", "code": "MRT"}, {"id": 213, "name": "Mauritius", "code": "MUS"}, {"id": 113, "name": "Mexico", "code": "MEX"}, {"id": 349173, "name": "Middle East and North Africa (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 111, "name": "Moldova", "code": "MDA"}, {"id": 112, "name": "Mongolia", "code": "MNG"}, {"id": 215, "name": "Montenegro", "code": "MNE"}, {"id": 110, "name": "Morocco", "code": "MAR"}, {"id": 109, "name": "Mozambique", "code": "MOZ"}, {"id": 142, "name": "Myanmar", "code": "MMR"}, {"id": 108, "name": "Namibia", "code": "NAM"}, {"id": 107, "name": "Nepal", "code": "NPL"}, {"id": 220, "name": "New Caledonia", "code": "NCL"}, {"id": 105, "name": "Nicaragua", "code": "NIC"}, {"id": 104, "name": "Niger", "code": "NER"}, {"id": 103, "name": "Nigeria", "code": "NGA"}, {"id": 278896, "name": "North America (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 128, "name": "North Korea", "code": "PRK"}, {"id": 66, "name": "North Macedonia", "code": "MKD"}, {"id": 217, "name": "Oman", "code": "OMN"}, {"id": 101, "name": "Pakistan", "code": "PAK"}, {"id": 224, "name": "Palau", "code": "PLW"}, {"id": 140, "name": "Palestine", "code": "PSE"}, {"id": 100, "name": "Panama", "code": "PAN"}, {"id": 99, "name": "Papua New Guinea", "code": "PNG"}, {"id": 98, "name": "Paraguay", "code": "PRY"}, {"id": 97, "name": "Peru", "code": "PER"}, {"id": 96, "name": "Philippines", "code": "PHL"}, {"id": 11, "name": "Poland", "code": "POL"}, {"id": 95, "name": "Portugal", "code": "PRT"}, {"id": 93, "name": "Puerto Rico", "code": "PRI"}, {"id": 226, "name": "Qatar", "code": "QAT"}, {"id": 92, "name": "Romania", "code": "ROU"}, {"id": 12, "name": "Russia", "code": "RUS"}, {"id": 91, "name": "Rwanda", "code": "RWA"}, {"id": 239, "name": "Samoa", "code": "WSM"}, {"id": 231, "name": "San Marino", "code": "SMR"}, {"id": 232, "name": "Sao Tome and Principe", "code": "STP"}, {"id": 90, "name": "Saudi Arabia", "code": "SAU"}, {"id": 89, "name": "Senegal", "code": "SEN"}, {"id": 88, "name": "Serbia", "code": "SRB"}, {"id": 233, "name": "Seychelles", "code": "SYC"}, {"id": 87, "name": "Sierra Leone", "code": "SLE"}, {"id": 86, "name": "Singapore", "code": "SGP"}, {"id": 82, "name": "Somalia", "code": "SOM"}, {"id": 81, "name": "South Africa", "code": "ZAF"}, {"id": 277956, "name": "South Asia (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 127, "name": "South Korea", "code": "KOR"}, {"id": 258, "name": "South Sudan", "code": "SSD"}, {"id": 367397, "name": "Southern and Eastern Africa (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 9, "name": "Spain", "code": "ESP"}, {"id": 141, "name": "Sri Lanka", "code": "LKA"}, {"id": 277950, "name": "Sub-Saharan Africa (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 79, "name": "Sudan", "code": "SDN"}, {"id": 234, "name": "Suriname", "code": "SUR"}, {"id": 77, "name": "Syria", "code": "SYR"}, {"id": 76, "name": "Tajikistan", "code": "TJK"}, {"id": 64, "name": "Tanzania", "code": "TZA"}, {"id": 75, "name": "Thailand", "code": "THA"}, {"id": 74, "name": "Togo", "code": "TGO"}, {"id": 235, "name": "Tonga", "code": "TON"}, {"id": 71, "name": "Tunisia", "code": "TUN"}, {"id": 70, "name": "Turkey", "code": "TUR"}, {"id": 68, "name": "Uganda", "code": "UGA"}, {"id": 67, "name": "Ukraine", "code": "UKR"}, {"id": 72, "name": "United Arab Emirates", "code": "ARE"}, {"id": 459, "name": "Upper-middle-income countries", "code": null}, {"id": 63, "name": "Uruguay", "code": "URY"}, {"id": 62, "name": "Uzbekistan", "code": "UZB"}, {"id": 221, "name": "Vanuatu", "code": "VUT"}, {"id": 238, "name": "Venezuela", "code": "VEN"}, {"id": 84, "name": "Vietnam", "code": "VNM"}, {"id": 367398, "name": "Western and Central Africa (WB)", "code": null}, {"id": 60, "name": "Zambia", "code": "ZMB"}, {"id": 80, "name": "Zimbabwe", "code": "ZWE"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 2043, "title": "World Bank Education Statistics (EdStats)", "description": "The World Bank EdStats database offers a comprehensive array of over 8,000 internationally comparable indicators related to education access, progression, completion, literacy, teachers, demographics, and expenditures. It covers the education cycle from pre-primary to vocational and tertiary education, including data on learning outcomes from assessments like PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, equity data from household surveys, and educational projections up to 2050.", "producer": "World Bank", "citationFull": "World Bank Education Statistics (EdStats), World Bank, 2023. Licence: CC BY 4.0.", "attributionShort": "World Bank", "urlMain": "https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/search/dataset/0038480/education-statistics", "dateAccessed": "2024-11-04", "datePublished": "2024-10-01", "license": {"url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "name": "CC BY 4.0"}}, {"id": 5209, "title": "How Was Life? Global Well-being since 1820 - Education", "description": "The data comes from the How Was Life? Global Well-being Since 1820 report by the OECD. It notes that the concept of literacy has changed over time, which affects how it is measured. In earlier periods, literacy was broadly understood as being \u201ceducated\u201d or \u201clearned.\u201d However, by the late 19th century, the definition narrowed to mean the ability to read and write simple texts. This shift in meaning was driven by the spread of mass education, which emphasized basic reading and writing skills for large populations. As a result, historical estimates of literacy are based on differing definitions over time, making it important to interpret the data within its historical context.", "producer": "van Zanden, J. et al.", "citationFull": "van Zanden, J., et al. (eds.) (2014), How Was Life?: Global Well-being since 1820, Education, OECD Publishing, Paris. Available at https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life/education-since-1820_9789264214262-9-en. Accessed on 14th August 2023.", "versionProducer": "2014", "urlMain": "https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life/education-since-1820_9789264214262-9-en", "dateAccessed": "2023-08-14", "license": {"url": "https://www.oecd.org/termsandconditions/", "name": "Creative Commons BY 4.0"}}]}