What many overlook as a basic ability — as common and
easy as switching on a light — is to other people around the
world a privilege that isn’t easily afforded. Literacy, the
ability to read and write, is not a universal faculty as many
would believe. In fact, illiteracy is just one of many
considerable factors that exacerbate inequality and make the
advancement of those in underdeveloped societies more
difficult.
If we consider how much we rely on these basic but vital
tools of communication, which most of us have perfected
early in our youth, it’s difficult to comprehend that 22
percent of all adults on earth are illiterate. UNESCO
estimates that 30 to 50 million people are added to the
growing list of illiterate individuals annually. The underlying
reason for these numbers is lack of opportunity. The long-
standing notion that illiteracy is due to the individual’s
limited intellectual capacity is false; what’s true is that
people are illiterate not as a choice or due to ignorance, but
as a consequence of being born into a cycle of poverty that
restricts accessibility to education. And poverty is not a
choice.
The CIA World Factbook reports that there are 775 million
people globally who cannot read and write, with 122 million
of these individuals being children. Women make up two-
thirds of this demographic and the lowest illiteracy rates are
found in South and West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 98
percent of all illiterate individuals live in developing
countries where children are often forced to quit school due
to its unaffordable cost or in order to join the labor force as
a means of survival. It’s clear that large-scale poverty
correlates to a lower literacy rate in a country. To further
shed some light on this prominent issue, the following list
ranks the countries with the lowest literacy rates in the
world based on world comparison statistics collected by the
CIA World Factbook.

10. Benin: 42.4 percent literacy rate

Benin is located in West Africa and only 42.4 percent of its
population can read and write. As a country ravaged by war
and plagued by political instability, Benin’s poor education
system has evidently suffered the consequences. Yet
progressive efforts have been made since the 1990s that have
benefited the people of Benin. Free tuition has increased
enrollment rates, which has prompted an increase in the
number of girls who attend school, helping to ease the
disparity between the sexes in academia and by effect,
literacy rates. But high enrollment rates are not indicative of
high success rates. Due to the rapid increase in the numbers
of those enrolled in school there is a shortage of teachers
that can accommodate the many children who seek to learn.
Classroom overcrowding deters the effectiveness of a school’s
curriculum and this contributes to Benin’s overall poor
education system that’s responsible for teaching children to
read and write.

Go on

9. Guinea: 41 percent literacy rate

Guinea is located on the Atlantic coast of West Africa and 41
percent of its population can read and write. The people of Guinea
are mostly all below poverty level with the majority living on
about 1 dollar a day. 52 percent of adult men are literate but only
30 percent of adult women are as well. In this economically and
politically unstable country there is a poor quality education
system that leaves many children without the opportunity to
learn. Schools are scarce in Guinea, which is one of Africa’s least
developed countries, and although tuition is free, many families
cannot afford the price of books or uniforms, which forces many
children to drop out of school or prevents them from attending
altogether.

8. Ethiopia: 39 percent literacy rate


Only 39 percent of Ethiopians are literate. There is a general lack
of accessibility to education in Ethiopia, a situation that is
worsened by the fact that there exist great disparities between the
quality of education in private and public schools. Private schools
are generally better equipped with more qualified teachers but are
typically too expensive for the majority of children to attend.

7. Somalia: 37.8 percent literacy rate

37.8 percent of Somalis can read and write. This may be
attributable to the fact that out of the 1.7 million primary
school age children, only 710, 860 attend school. The ongoing
crisis of war and famine that began in Somalia in 1991 has
ravaged the country and practically destroyed its national
education system. The low literacy rates today attest to the
social and economic crisis the civil war beset on the country
of Somalia.

6. Chad: 34.5 percent literacy rate
Chad is located in West Africa and neighbors Niger. Only
34.5 percent of the population in Chad is literate. With the
Chadian government only spending up to 2 percent of its
national GDP on education, only 36.5 percent of school-age
children are enrolled in school. It’s not a surprise, then, that
the country has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world
since teaching people to read and write is evidently not a
governmental priority.

5. Mali: 33.4 percent literacy rate

Only 33.4 percent of people in Mali know how to read and
write. Men and women stand on unequal footing with 43.1
percent of males literate and only 24.6 percent of women
able to read and write. There are also large disparities
between schools established in rural and urban areas, too;
teachers who are under qualified typically teach in rural
areas. There are also few literate teachers in Mali able to
teach literacy programs, which perpetuates the problem.

4. Niger: 28. 7 percent literacy rate
In Niger, a meagre total of 28.7 percent of the population can
read and write. A disparate number of women in Niger are
literate at 15.1 percent compared to the 42.9 percent of men
who can read and write. Niger is also one of the poorest
countries in the world and over 50 percent of its population
is under 15 years old. The population pressure correlates
with the lack of resources available to accommodate
educational infrastructure.

3. Afghanistan: 28.1 percent literacy
rate

In Afghanistan, only 28.1 percent of citizens can read and
write. Only 12.6 percent of women are literate and this is
due in part to traditional cultural norms in Afghan society.
Extremists and misogynists in Afghanistan take strict and
often violent preventive measures to keep girls and women
from accessing education. Resistance to equal opportunity for
schooling is strong in Afghanistan; in 2008 there were 283
violent attacks on educational institutions. Despite the heavy
opposition, Afghan girls remain strong and dedicated to
advancing their lives through education. Since 2008, over 2
million girls are now enrolled in school with the numbers
steadily increasing.

2. South Sudan: 27 percent literacy rate

Just 27 percent of South Sudan’s entire population can read
and write. The country is known as the world’s youngest,
having gained independence from Sudan in 2011. It’s self-
evident that a young country faces numerous obstacles in
reaching a state of self-sufficiency and prosperity and for this
reason an efficient education system is still in the works.
The consequence of this work in progress is the country’s
low literacy rate, which hasn’t been helped by the war-torn
history of the country.

1. Burkina Faso: 21.8 percent literacy
rate

Located in West Africa, Burkina Faso is a former French
colony where the primary language is French, though many
citizens cannot read nor write the language since a high
percentage of the population doesn’t attend school. As a
country with historically poor social welfare, only about one-
third of children attend primary school. Due to the generally
inaccessible locations of the schools, children in rural
villages must walk for several miles to reach the nearest
school. UNICEF reports that only 65 percent of boys and 54
percent of girls attend school. The dropout rate is
increasingly high and it seems clear that a country with so
inefficient an education system produces the lowest level of
literacy rates in the world. Burkina Faso relies heavily on an
internalized economy and so it’s typically a more viable
option for most children to abandon education and work
instead.