Band 6+: The chart below shows estimated illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the year 2000. write a report for a university lecturer describing the information below.

The bar chart illustrates the estimated rates of people who could not read in the regions of Developed Countries, Latin America/Caribbean, East Asia/Oceania, Sub-Saharan Africa, Arab States, and South Asia, categorized by gender in 2000.

Overall, in all groups, women considered to be more illiterate compared to men, with the highest illiteracy rates in South Asia region and the lowest one in the Developed Countries region.

South Asia, Arab States, and Sub-Saharan Africa stand as the regions with the highest illiteracy rates, which consist of 25% – 35% men and 45% – 55% women, maintaining 20 percent gap in each region. On the other hand, with only slightly less than half percentage of Sub-Saharan Africa region, East Asians men who could not read were only about 20% and women were around 10%. The rate also dropped down in Latin America/Caribbean area, with only a small different between male and female rates, which hover around 10% of the population. Moreover, Developed Countries became the group with lowest rate of illiteracy, with close to zero figure who could not read.