| Rank | Country | Literacy |
47 | Tonga | definition: can read and write Tongan and/or English total population: 98.9% male: 98.8% female: 99% (1999 est.) |
53 | Trinidad and Tobago | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 98.6% male: 99.1% female: 98% (2003 est.) |
161 | Tunisia | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 74.3% male: 83.4% female: 65.3% (2004 census) |
134 | Turkey | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 87.4% male: 95.3% female: 79.6% (2004 est.) |
50 | Turkmenistan | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 98.8% male: 99.3% female: 98.3% (1999 est.) |
61 | Turks and Caicos Islands | definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school total population: 98% male: 99% female: 98% (1970 est.) |
| Tuvalu | NA |
178 | Uganda | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 66.8% male: 76.8% female: 57.7% (2002 census) |
24 | Ukraine | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.4% male: 99.7% female: 99.2% (2001 census) |
157 | United Arab Emirates | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 77.9% male: 76.1% female: 81.7% (2003 est.) |
45 | United Kingdom | definition: age 15 and over has completed five or more years of schooling total population: 99% male: 99% female: 99% (2003 est.) |
46 | United States | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99% male: 99% female: 99% (2003 est.) |
| United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges | void |
62 | Uruguay | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 98% male: 97.6% female: 98.4% (2003 est.) |
25 | Uzbekistan | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99.3% male: 99.6% female: 99% (2003 est.) |
163 | Vanuatu | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 74% male: NA female: NA (1999 census) |
103 | Venezuela | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 93% male: 93.3% female: 92.7% (2001 census) |
122 | Vietnam | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 90.3% male: 93.9% female: 86.9% (2002 est.) |
93 | Virgin Islands | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 90-95% est. male: NA% female: NA% (2005 est.) |
| Wake Island | void |
195 | Wallis and Futuna | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 50% male: 50% female: 50% (1969 est.) |
111 | West Bank | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 92.4% male: 96.7% female: 88% (2004 est.) |
| Western Sahara | NA |
| World | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 82% male: 87% female: 77% note: over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.) |
194 | Yemen | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 50.2% male: 70.5% female: 30% (2003 est.) |
151 | Zambia | definition: age 15 and over can read and write English total population: 80.6% male: 86.8% female: 74.8% (2003 est.) |
120 | Zimbabwe | definition: age 15 and over can read and write English total population: 90.7% male: 94.2% female: 87.2% (2003 est.) |