1 Less than 50%
2 50% to 74%
3 75% to 94%
4 95% or over
5 No data
0 No Data
1 Less than 5%
2 5-10%
3 10-15%
4 15-20%
5 More than 20%

Women's Literacy

What does it mean ?

The adult female literacy rate is the percentage of women aged 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement.

Why does it matter ?

Improving literacy and education for women not only leads to improved health and livelihood outcomes for the woman herself and her family, but has a positive impact on a nation's economy and development. The 4th Sustainable Development Goal is to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning, with one of the stated targets being "by 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy."

How is it collected ?

Data on literacy is gathered from large scale, nationally representative surveys such as Demographic and Health (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), other national surveys and censuses.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (June 2016 Release) based on data for 1999 - 2015 http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx?queryid=166

Adolescent Birth Rate

What does it mean ?

This indicator represents the number of babies born to girls and women aged 15-19 each year. It can be understood as the expected number of girls that will become pregnant between the ages of 15-19 each year out of 1,000 girls in that age group.

Why does it matter ?

In countries where child marriage is common, it is also likely that a high adolescent fertility rate will result. The marriage of girls followed by multiple childbearing either in early or late teen years is a violation of human and reproductive rights, as well as a missed opportunity to improve levels of female literacy, education and the economic progress that is associated with female participation in the labour force.

How is it collected ?

A national survey was undertaken in each country from a representative sample of households where women and girls were asked how many children they have given birth to and when they occurred. Using data from girls aged 15-19, a fertility rate was calculated by adding the number of births within the year before the survey, and dividing by the number of girls in the survey aged 15-19.

World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Standard/Fertility/