Where the people cannot read

The largest numbers of nonliterate people do not necessarily live in the parts of the world with the lowest literacy rates.

If you look at a world map with countries colored by their literacy rate, the countries of Africa stand out as having low literacy rates.

Africa, however, with only 15 percent of the world's number of nonliterates, is third after China and India which together account for 50 percent.

The following graph shows the numerical distribution of the world's nonliterate people.

• Fact module: Where the people cannot read
• In overview module: General literacy statistics, by Stephen L. Walter
• In overview module: The big picture in literacy, by Stephen L. Walter
• In modular book: Prepare for a literacy program, by Stephen L. Walter, Mary Morgan, and Leah B. Walter
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 1 October 1999

© 1999 SIL International