Uruguay's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) was 99.17% in 2024, the latest year in the World Bank's World Development Indicators. That is up 0.36 percentage points from 98.81% in 2014.
Key figures
| Value | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Latest | 99.17% | 2024 |
| Five years earlier | 99.04% | 2019 |
| Ten years earlier | 98.81% | 2014 |
| Highest | 99.57% | 2023 |
| Lowest | 94.3% | 1975 |
| Average since 2015 | 99.09% | 2015–2024 |
| First recorded | 94.3% | 1975 |
What the numbers say
In 2024, Uruguay's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) fell 0.4 percentage points on 2023 (from 99.57% to 99.17%).
Across the 15 yearly changes before that (2007 to 2023), the average change was +0.11 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.13 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 3.9 standard deviations below that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.
On record, the biggest yearly rise was 0.48 percentage points in 2023 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.4 percentage points in 2024. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.
From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is upward, about 0.06 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 61% of the movement over 9 observed years.
Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.
How it compares
In 2024, Uruguay had the 3rd 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 | |
|---|---|---|
| Uruguay | 99.17% | 2024 |
| World | 84.59% | 2024 |
| Latin America & Caribbean | 94.69% | 2024 |
Closest to Uruguay in the 2024 ranking
- Georgia — 1st of 19: 99.62%
- West Bank and Gaza — 3rd of 19: 96.85%
- Colombia — 4th of 19: 95.69%
- Brazil — 5th of 19: 95.01%
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 21 values
| Year | Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 99.17 |
| 2023 | 99.57 |
| 2022 | 99.09 |
| 2021 | no data |
| 2020 | 99.29 |
| 2019 | 99.04 |
| 2018 | 99.01 |
| 2017 | 98.96 |
| 2016 | 98.85 |
| 2015 | 98.87 |
| 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)
- Guatemala — 78.46% (2024)
- Honduras — 88.78% (2024)
- Mexico — 94.87% (2024)
More education data for Uruguay
- Primary school starting age (years) — 6 (2025)
- Primary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age (years) — 12 (2025)
- Secondary education, duration (years) — 6 (2025)
- Primary education, pupils — 287,527 (2023)
- School enrollment, primary (% gross) — 104.53% (2023)
- School enrollment, primary, female (% gross) — 103.96% (2023)
- School enrollment, primary, male (% gross) — 105.08% (2023)
- Secondary education, pupils — 337,808 (2023)
- School enrollment, secondary (% gross) — 119.11% (2023)
Reading data like this
Questions people ask
- What is Uruguay's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above)?
- 99.17% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).
- How has it changed since 1975?
- It is up 4.87 percentage points from 94.3% in 1975. The highest value was 99.57% in 2023 and the lowest 94.3% in 1975.
- How does Uruguay rank?
- 3rd highest of 19 economies with data for 2024.
- Is the latest change in literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) unusual for Uruguay?
- In 2024, Uruguay's literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) fell 0.4 percentage points on 2023 (from 99.57% to 99.17%). Across the 15 yearly changes before that (2007 to 2023), the average change was +0.11 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.13 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 3.9 standard deviations below that average, so it was unusually large compared with the rest of the record.
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.
Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.
Legal entity
Devansh Yadav
Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Governing law: Courts at Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh
Phone: +91 8433475698
Legal: legal@analyzeit.in