Adult literacy rate in South Africa
Adult literacy rate in South Africa was 91.2% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. That is the 23rd highest of 56 countries in 2019.
Adult literacy rate in South Africa, 1980 to 2024
All 13 values
| Period | % |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 91.2 |
| 2021 | 90 |
| 2019 | 95 |
| 2016 | 91.7 |
| 2015 | 94.4 |
| 2014 | 94.1 |
| 2012 | 93.7 |
| 2011 | 93.1 |
| 2010 | 92.9 |
| 2009 | 92.9 |
| 2007 | 88.7 |
| 1996 | 82.4 |
| 1980 | 76.2 |
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.Use this data in your AI agent
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What is the latest adult literacy rate in South Africa? Cite the source.
get_value {"indicator":"literacy_rate_adult","place":"za"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/value?indicator=literacy_rate_adult&place=zaQuestions
What is the adult literacy rate in South Africa?
Adult literacy rate in South Africa was 91.2% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics. That is the 23rd highest of 56 countries in 2019.
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 South Africa?
95% in 2019, the highest value since 1980 in this series.