South Africa: Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above)

Key figures

How it compares

In 2024, South Africa had the 15th highest value of the 20 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.

Closest to South Africa in the 2024 ranking

• Dominican Republic — 12th of 20: 93.6%
• Sri Lanka — 13th of 20: 93.53%
• El Salvador — 14th of 20: 91.62%
• Honduras — 16th of 20: 87.61%
• Guatemala — 17th of 20: 86.87%
• India — 18th of 20: 85.69%

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. And 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 13 values

Literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above) in nearby economies

• Burkina Faso — 48.68% (2023)
• Mauritius — 96.1% (2023)
• Senegal — 61.47% (2023)
• Uganda — 81.26% (2024)
• Zambia — 80.6% (2024)

More education data for South Africa

• Primary school starting age (years) — 7 (2025)
• Primary education, duration (years) — 7 (2025)
• Lower secondary school starting age (years) — 14 (2025)
• Secondary education, duration (years) — 5 (2025)
• Primary education, pupils — 7.52 million (2023)
• School enrollment, primary (% gross) — 101.77% (2023)
• School enrollment, primary, female (% gross) — 99.21% (2023)
• School enrollment, primary, male (% gross) — 104.32% (2023)
• Government expenditure on education, total (% of government expenditure) — 19.14% (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is South Africa's literacy rate, adult male (% of males ages 15 and above)?

91.5% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1980?

It is up 13.97 percentage points from 77.53% in 1980. The highest value was 95.55% in 2019 and the lowest 77.53% in 1980.

How does South Africa rank?

15th highest of 20 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.MA.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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