Education · Africa ranking
Adult Literacy Rate by African country
Mauritius has the highest adult literacy rate of any African country, at 94.3%, ahead of South Africa and Lesotho.
Share of people ages 15 and over who can read and write. 14 of 54 countries, ranked · UNESCO UIS, 2023.
Latest available year varies by country (2023–2024). Only observations within 2 years of the freshest result are included, and each row shows its period.
Mauritius
South Africa
LesothoBy region
Full ranking
| # | Country | Adult Literacy Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mauritius | 94.3% | |
| 2 | South Africa | 91.2% | |
| 3 | Lesotho | 90.4% | |
| 4 | Cabo Verde | 88.5% | |
| 5 | Namibia | 87.6% | |
| 6 | Tunisia | 86.3% | |
| 7 | Uganda | 77% | |
| 8 | Zambia | 71.8% | |
| 9 | Nigeria | 70.4% | |
| 10 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 68.5% | |
| 11 | Angola | 68.2% | |
| 12 | Senegal | 50.4% | |
| 13 | Burkina Faso | 41.6% | |
| 14 | Mali | 35.6% |
Cabo Verde
Namibia
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Nigeria
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Angola
Senegal
Burkina Faso
MaliGet this ranking via API
One call to /v1/data returns the latest Adult Literacy Rate figure for every country you pass — JSON, with source metadata on each observation.
curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/data?metric_key=adult_literacy_pct&latest=true&country_codes=NG,KE,ZA,EG" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"Cite or republish this ranking
Data: Africa API — UNESCO UIS, 2023. Free to republish with a link to this page. Pull the live figures via the API above so your version never goes stale.
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Frequently asked questions
Which African country has the highest adult literacy rate?
Mauritius has the highest adult literacy rate in Africa at 94.3% (2023), followed by South Africa and Lesotho.
Which African country has the lowest adult literacy rate?
Mali has the lowest adult literacy rate of the 14 African countries with data, at 35.6% (2024).
How many African countries report Adult Literacy Rate data?
14 of 54 African countries have a Adult Literacy Rate figure in the Africa API, each from the latest year available for that country (which can differ between countries, here 2023–2024). Every value links to its full series with source and history.
How do I get this ranking via API?
Call GET /v1/data?metric_key=adult_literacy_pct&latest=true with the country codes you need and a free Africa API key — the response returns the latest value per country as JSON.
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