Highest youth literacy rates APAC 2022, by country

In 2020, China had a youth literacy rate of about 99.8 percent. In contrast, Afghanistan's youth literacy rate stood at 55.9 percent in 2021.

Indicators for the literacy rate

An indicator which can be seen to affect the literacy rate is the governmental effort in investing in education. The amount of funds invested into the education sector is a factor which can determine a country’s state of education, as the amount of money being spent on education would have an impact on resources, learning environment, and teaching quality. Singapore’s student-teacher ratio in primary education is significantly lower than that of South Asian countries. For instance, Nepal had 20.3 students for every teacher in 2019. Meanwhile, Singaporean teachers only had around 14.5 students on average as of 2020. Notably, South Asia, together with sub-Saharan Africa, had a much higher illiteracy rate compared to the East Asian and Pacific region in 2022. 

The importance of literacy

The literacy rate indicates the percentage of people within a population who can read and write. This enables them to identify, understand and interpret materials with various contexts. Ensuring literacy for all pupils is a part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for quality education. This in turn stimulates economic and societal growth for the future.