Quality Standards: See quality standards for the underlying indicators.
Limitations: The index does not show whether improvement or regression is due to the performance of one of the gender groups. Interpretation requires trend analysis of the underlying indicators.
Youth literacy rate
Definition: The number of persons aged 15 to 24 years who can both read and write with an understanding of short simple statements on their everyday life, divided by the population in that age group. Generally, ‘literacy’ also encompasses ‘numeracy’, the ability to make simple arithmetic calculations.
Purpose: To reflect recent outcomes of the basic education process. It is a summary measure of the effectiveness of the education system.
Calculation Method: Divide the number of people aged 15 to 24 years who are literate by the total population in the same age group and multiply the result by 100.
Data required: Population and number of literates (or illiterates) aged 15- to 24-years-old.
Data source: Mainly national population census; household and/or labor force surveys.
Types of disaggregation: By gender and geographical location (region, urban/rural).
Interpretation: A high literacy rate among the 15- to 24-year-olds suggests a high level of participation and retention in primary education, and its effectiveness in imparting the basic skills of reading and writing. Because persons belonging to this age group are entering adult life, monitoring their literacy levels is important with respect to national human resources policies, as well as for tracking and forecasting progress in adult literacy.
Quality Standards: The rate cannot exceed 100%. It is useful to align measurements of literacy with the standard international definition given above and to administer literacy tests on a sample basis to verify and improve the quality of the statistics.
Limitations: It has been observed that some countries apply definitions and criteria for literacy which are different from the international standards defined above, or equate persons with no schooling to illiterates, or change definitions between censuses. Practices for identifying literates and illiterates during actual census enumeration may also vary, as well as errors in literacy self-declaration can affect the reliability of the statistics.