Data instruments used to estimate literacy, 2016
This figure illustrates the type of sources that countries use to estimate literacy rates. The three categories include censuses (e.g. national population censuses),surveys (e.g. Demographic and Health Surveys), and indirect inference (e.g. extrapolation from educational attainment data).

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Related research and data
Charts
- Adult literacy rate
- Estimated historical literacy rates
- Female youth literacy rate
- Historical literacy in England, by sex
- Literacy by years of schooling, United States
- Literacy rate
- Literacy rate in adult men
- Literacy rate in adult women
- Literacy rate of young men and women
- Literacy rate of young men vs. womenScatterplot
- Literacy rate vs. GDP per capita
- Literacy rate vs. average years of schooling
- Literacy rates of adult males, one-sentence test (DHS) vs. self-reports (UNESCO)
- Literacy rates of older vs. younger population
- Literacy rates, adult female, one-sentence test (DHS) vs. self-reports (UNESCO)
- Literacy rates, survey estimates vs. official UNESCO estimates
- Literate and illiterate world population
- Living languages
- Male youth literacy rate
- Methodologies used for measuring literacy
- Numeracy skills of adults young adults vs adults
- Numeracy vs. literacy skills of adults
- Share of the population with basic numeracy skills
- Students in grade 2 who can't read a single word
- UNESCO literacy rate vs. PIAAC literacy proficiency
- Youth literacy rates, adjusted gender parity index