The graphic shows global rates of illiteracy for last year broken down by both gender and area. It is evident that there are great discrepancies in literacy rates according to both geographic location and sex.
What is most striking when looking at the data is the fact that the burden of illiteracy is disproportionately borne by women, wherever they hail from. In almost every region on the planet, the number of women who cannot read is significantly higher than the number of illiterate men; in East Asia and Oceania, as well as in the developed countries, it is actually double. Only in Latin America and the Caribbean is there little disparity between the genders in literacy rates.
The geographical distribution of education is also plain in this chart. Men everywhere are less likely to be unable to read and write than women: however, in some parts of the world, extremely significant segments of the whole population are illiterate. This is most marked in South Asia, the Arab states and Sub-Saharan Africa where approximately half of all women do not possess literacy skills, a lack they share with a third of all men. In East Asia, a fifth of women and 10% of men are uneducated in reading and writing.
This is in stark contrast with developed countries, where the proportion of illiterates is truly marginal, even though the absolute number of women is nevertheless double that of men.
Overall, we can see that there are great differences in educational provision across the globe and that (leaving aside Latin America and the Caribbean) the lion’s share of illiteracy is given to women.