Guatemala's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) was 78.46% in 2024, the latest year in the World Bank's World Development Indicators. That is up 2.09 percentage points from 76.37% in 2014.
Key figures
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 78.46% | 2024 |
| Ten years earlier | 76.37% | 2014 |
| Highest | 78.72% | 2023 |
| Lowest | 57.29% | 1994 |
| Average since 2015 | 77.53% | 2015–2024 |
| First recorded | 57.29% | 1994 |
Since 1994 it is up 21.17 percentage points from 57.29% in 1994. The World Bank has no value for 21 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.
How it compares
In 2024, Guatemala had the 18th highest value of the 19 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala | 78.46% | 2024 |
| World | 84.59% | 2024 |
| Latin America & Caribbean | 94.69% | 2024 |
| Upper middle income | 94.87% | 2024 |
Closest to Guatemala in the 2024 ranking
- Peru — 14th of 19: 90.65%
- Honduras — 15th of 19: 88.78%
- El Salvador — 16th of 19: 88.25%
- Uganda — 18th of 19: 73.48%
- India — 19th of 19: 70.74%
What this measures
Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.
Limitations: In practice, literacy is difficult to measure. Estimating literacy rates requires census or survey measurements under controlled conditions. Many countries report the number of literate people from self-reported data. Some use educational attainment data as a proxy but apply different lengths of school attendance or levels of completion. Ant there is a trend among recent national and international surveys toward using a direct reading test of literacy skills. Because definitions and methods of data collection differ across countries, data should be used cautiously.
Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.
All 10 values
| Year | Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 78.46 |
| 2023 | 78.72 |
| 2022 | 78.61 |
| 2021 | no data |
| 2020 | no data |
| 2019 | no data |
| 2018 | 76.72 |
| 2017 | no data |
| 2016 | no data |
| 2015 | 75.14 |
| 2014 |
Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) in nearby economies
- Bolivia — 94.82% (2024)
- Brazil — 95.01% (2024)
- Colombia — 95.69% (2024)
- Dominican Republic — 94.43% (2024)
- Ecuador — 92.58% (2024)
- El Salvador — 88.25% (2024)
- Honduras — 88.78% (2024)
- Mexico — 94.87% (2024)
- Paraguay — 94.34% (2024)
More education data for Guatemala
- Primary school starting age (years) — 7 (2025)
- Primary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age (years) — 13 (2025)
- Secondary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
- Primary education, pupils — 2.42 million (2024)
- School enrollment, primary (% gross) — 101.49% (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female (% gross) — 100.56% (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, male (% gross) — 102.4% (2024)
- Primary education, teachers — 122,362 (2024)
- Secondary education, pupils — 1.13 million (2024)
Reading data like this
Questions people ask
- What is Guatemala's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above)?
- 78.46% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).
- How has it changed since 1994?
- It is up 21.17 percentage points from 57.29% in 1994. The highest value was 78.72% in 2023 and the lowest 57.29% in 1994.
- How does Guatemala rank?
- 18th highest of 19 economies with data for 2024.
- Where does this data come from?
- The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Data API, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources, note: The data are obtained through the UIS API..
Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Data API, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources, note: The data are obtained through the UIS API. Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.
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