Data Mining -> Student Factors  -> Adult Literacy

What is the United States adult literacy rate in relationship to other nations?

Why is this question important?  A primary goal of the American public education system has traditionally been the cultivation of literacy. This goal is especially important for enabling Americans to successfully compete for jobs in the international market place.  It is therefore logical that we establish adult literacy as a critical benchmark that will allow us to know when we are succeeding in meeting this goal and that we track this benchmark in relation to nations throughout the globe.

See further discussion below.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in May 2008 - http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev_en.php?ID=6401_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC 

Results: Data for 208 countries and territories are available in the UNESCO database. The adult literacy rate is available for 145 countries. The literacy data from 2007 is available for 115 nations. The literacy rate ranges from Cuba at 99.8% to a low of  23.6% in Burkina Faso. The highest literacy rates are Asia (east and southeast), Europe (east and south), and Latin America. All these countries have literacy rates above 8o%. Other areas of high literacy are believed to be western Europe as well as the United States, Canada, and Australia, but this information is missing as they are part of the 71 countries whose data were not submitted to UNESCO.

Implications: The obvious implication is that the United States does not make available adult literacy information for review. It is important that we begin to track adult literacy to assure that the United States has workers who can effectively compete in the international marketplace. The erosion of many of America's high paying jobs over the past 30 years makes it imperative that the workforce possess the basic skills to attract higher paying jobs that are capable of maintaining the American middle class.

Authors: The United Nation Institute of Statistics. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics is the statistical branch of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO). It was established in July 1999 in order to reform UNESCO's statistical capacities. The data display used for this report was developed by Friedrich Huebler in an independent report of the UNESCO's data titled International Education Statistics( http://huebler.blogspot.com/ ).

Publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics , http://www.uis.unesco.org  

Study Description: The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) was established in July 1999. The UIS provides reliable statistics in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communication to the UN and member nations. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics is hosted by the University of Montreal in Canada.
The UIS education database is the most comprehensive in the world. More than 200 countries and territories take part in the UIS annual education survey, which covers all education levels and a range of issues such as gender parity, teachers and financing. The UIS has the mandate to monitor progress towards Education for All and education-related United Nations educational goals. The statistics are updated twice a year.

Definitions: The adult literacy rate: The share of the population aged 15 years and above that can read and write.