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Basic literacy rates and OECD reading assessments provide complementary evidence. Dates, ages and coverage differ. Historical rates are available separately; a missing value is not zero.
Explore checked collections
Open a collection to see its records, definitions and sources.
Checks apply to the listed records. Partial collections do not represent a complete distribution, and census boundaries may differ. Other regional records and inherited identity and political classifications remain under review.
How to read the figures
Counts use full numbers with comma grouping. Percentages use up to two decimal places; very small nonzero values use a bound such as <0.01%. Source precision is retained in the data and profile exports. Dates retain the precision reported by the source. Scores keep their own units and are not converted into percentages.
Population and adult literacy use the latest available observations from 2010 onward in World Bank World Development Indicators. Literacy is sourced from UNESCO UIS through that series. The basic literacy map shows percentages only. Grey means no matching rate, not zero or low literacy. OECD PIAAC assessments appear only in the separate reading-skills layer and cannot be ranked against basic literacy rates. Orange in that layer indicates partial coverage (England or Flanders only). The separate reading-skills layer uses points on a 0–500 scale for ages 16–65. Historical UNESCO rates before 2010 are available using Include historical. No current rate is inferred from an old observation.
Population series · Literacy series
National shares require checked regional and national figures from the same observation period; precise dates must agree when provided. Mixed-year inventories have no national share. Regional counts may describe later administrative units through documented calculations; see each profile’s Sources tab for dates, release status and methods.
Income groups come from the archived World Bank economy list. They classify economies using gross national income per person and the Atlas conversion method. The response does not specify a classification year. Profiles show the snapshot retrieval date and link to the method and economy record.
The US profile includes NCES PIAAC 2023 reading proficiency levels and standard errors for the household population ages 16–65, assessed in English. These levels do not define a basic literacy rate. Published shares can sum above or below 100% because of rounding.
The underlying source snapshots and retrieval receipts are preserved with the project.
Identity, boundaries and interpretation
Community categories reflect the original sources and may overlap. Coverage does not mean every field is complete or current. Check dates and sources before comparing places.
Boundaries are provided for exploration and do not settle questions of sovereignty. Population checks do not certify precise census boundary equivalence.