South Africa
Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)
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.
Historical trend
Analytical takeaways
- South Africa records 91 for Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) in 2024, ranking #19 globally out of 29 countries.
- Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) increased from 76 in 1980 to 91 in 2024, a gain of 15.
- The country sits in the middle of the global distribution for this metric, making the page a balanced entry point for comparative analysis beyond the extremes.
Adjacent country pages
Related pages
Comparison
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