Data / Adult literacy rate / Italy

Adult literacy rate in Italy

Adult literacy rate in Italy was 99.3% in 2019, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. That is the 4th highest of 10 EU countries in 2011.

201999.3%
Rank4th of 10EU countries ranked
Series high99.32019
Series low96.51981
Get an email when a new figure is out or this one is revised.

Adult literacy rate in Italy, 1981 to 2019

9697989910019812001201120191981: 96.5 %2001: 98.4 %2011: 98.8 %2019: 99.3 %
%. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS) via World Bank, World Development Indicators. Retrieved 2026-10-12, published 2026-10-08.
All 4 values
Period%
201999.3
201198.8
200198.4
198196.5

Rankings

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.

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.

How to cite

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.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (2026). Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS) (Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019) [Data set]. World Bank, World Development Indicators. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS

MLA 9

Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS), Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 8 Oct. 2026, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS. World Bank, World Development Indicators, https://data.worldbank.org. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2026. Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS). Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019. Dataset. Distributed by World Bank, World Development Indicators. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy.

Harvard

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS), Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019 [Dataset]. Via World Bank, World Development Indicators. Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{unesco_adult_literacy_rate_italy_2019,
  author = {{UNESCO Institute for Statistics}},
  title = {{Literacy rate, adult total, \% of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS): Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  publisher = {World Bank, World Development Indicators},
  url = {https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Retrieved through World Bank, World Development Indicators (https://data.worldbank.org). Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy. Publisher attribution: 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.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - UNESCO Institute for Statistics
TI  - Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS): Adult literacy rate, Italy, 1981 to 2019
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/08
PB  - World Bank, World Development Indicators
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS
L2  - https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Retrieved through World Bank, World Development Indicators (https://data.worldbank.org).
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/en/adult-literacy-rate/italy.
N1  - Publisher attribution: 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.
ER  -
Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

What is the latest adult literacy rate in Italy? Cite the source.
get_value {"indicator":"literacy_rate_adult","place":"it"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/value?indicator=literacy_rate_adult&place=it

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

What is the adult literacy rate in Italy?

Adult literacy rate in Italy was 99.3% in 2019, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. That is the 4th highest of 10 EU countries in 2011.

Where does this figure come from?

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Literacy rate, adult total, % of people ages 15 and above (SE.ADT.LITR.ZS). Retrieved by Invokely on 2026-10-12.

What was the highest adult literacy rate in Italy?

99.3% in 2019, the highest value since 1981 in this series.

Adult literacy rate elsewhere in European Union (27)

Related statistics for Italy

All statistics for Italy | Italy in figures