# Adult literacy rate in Iran

Adult literacy rate in Iran was 88.9% in 2023. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

- Indicator id: `literacy_rate_adult`
- Place id: `ir`
- Unit: %
- Definition: People aged 15 and over who can both read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement about their everyday life, as a percentage of the population aged 15 and over. UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Note: UIS figures from censuses, household surveys and UIS model estimates. Most high-income countries stopped measuring literacy decades ago, so they have no value; a missing value is not a rate of 0 or 100. Countries report in different years, so a ranking for one year covers only some countries.
- Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS) (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS), via World Bank, World Development Indicators (https://data.worldbank.org)
- Publisher page: https://invokely.ai/en/publishers/unesco-institute-for-statistics
- Retrieved: 2026-10-12
- License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (commercial and non-commercial reuse, attribution required, adaptations shared under the same licence, no implied UIS endorsement)
- Citation: Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS). Retrieved through World Bank World Development Indicators (data.worldbank.org). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. UIS does not endorse Invokely or this use of the data.
- Web page: https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/iran
- API: https://invokely.ai/api/v1/series?indicator=literacy_rate_adult&place=ir

| Period | % |
|---|---:|
| 2023 | 88.9 |
| 2022 | 88.6 |
| 2021 | 88.5 |
| 2020 | 87.9 |
| 2019 | 87.4 |
| 2018 | 86.9 |
| 2017 | 85.9 |
| 2016 | 85.5 |
| 2015 | 85.3 |
| 2014 | 84.7 |
| 2013 | 84.6 |
| 2012 | 83.6 |
| 2011 | 83.5 |
| 2010 | 83.7 |
| 2009 | 83.2 |
| 2008 | 83 |
| 2006 | 82.3 |
| 2005 | 82.4 |
| 2002 | 77 |
| 1996 | 73.1 |
| 1991 | 65.5 |
| 1986 | 52.3 |
| 1976 | 36.5 |