Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.

Kofi Annan 1997

he biggest gaps between male and female literacy are in Bangladesh, the Philippines and Brazil. In Bangladesh, when the number of illiterate girls is subtracted from illiterate boys, the result is almost 1 million ‘extra’ boys who cannot read or write; which is roughly 6% of all men aged 15-24 there.

The most ‘extra’ male illiteracy in Africa it is in Kenya, Guinea and South Africa; in Eastern Europe it is in Ukraine and Hungary; in South America it is in Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Colour Key

North America

Central America

Caribbean

South America

Northern Europe

Central Europe

Eastern Europe

Southern Europe

Southern Africa

Northern Africa

Western Africa

Central Africa

Eastern Africa

Russia

Central Asia

Western Asia

Southern Asia

Eastern Asia

Australasia

Southeastern Asia

Pacific Oceania

Reference Map

Map No.

58

Years

Topic(s)

Technical Notes

Territory size is proportional to all men aged 15 to 24 who are literate in 2015.

Data sources
This map uses data from the 2016 United Nations Human Development Report and population estimates from the 2017 World Population Prospects (last accessed March 2018). We aim to map as complete data as possible and therefore estimate data for missing values. In some cases, missing data for very small territories is not used in the cartogram and that area is therefore omitted in the map.

All modification to the original data source are noted in our data sheets. Data for this map will soon be available as a download.

Download data file