Facts and Figures


Some facts about the state of education globally:


Primary level

  • Since 1990, 10 million more children attend school each year;
  • Primary school enrolment increased from 599 million in 1990 to 681 million in 1998;

  • In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; less than three-quarters of pupils reach Grade 5. (Yet research indicates that six years of primary education is needed to reach sustainable levels of literacy and numeracy);
  • East Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean are close to reaching the goal of universal primary education. This is already a reality in developed and transition countries.

  • Over 113 million children are out of school, two-thirds of them girls.


    Adult literacy

  • To achieve the EFA goals, the world's adult illiteracy rate has to be reduced from its current level of 21 per cent to about 10 per cent by 2015.
  • There are 875 million illiterate adults in the world, nearly two-thirds of them women.
  • 70 per cent of the world's illiterate adults can be found in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan (known as the E-9 countries).

    More on adult literacy

    and on the UN Literacy Decade


    Current situation


    Out of 155 developing countries:,

  • 36 have achieved universal primary education;
  • 31 are likely to reach the goal on current rates of progress;
  • 88 - more than half of the developing countries - are at risk of not completing five years of primary schooling by 2015, unless progress is accelerated.

  • In Latin America high drop-out and repetition rates show quality to be a concern:
  • In , education remains inaccessible for millions of children:
    Efforts required    :
  • The number of adult literates will have to increase annually by 92 million or 42 per cent more than the current figure.

  • Reaching the EFA goals will require a doubling of previous efforts (calculated on the basis of the efforts required between 1990 and 1998) for the least developed countries.

  • Egypt and India will have to double past efforts, while Bangladesh and Pakistan will have to triple them.


    For more on EFA:

  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics

  • World Bank

  • UN Girls' Education Initiative

  • EFA Web
  • UNICEF
  • UNDP
  • UNFPA