The bar chart illustrates the relationship between female literacy rates and annual population growth percentages across ten selected countries between 1998 and 2000.
Overall, the graph reveals a clear inverse correlation between the two metrics. Countries with lower rates of female literacy generally experienced significantly higher rates of population growth, whereas nations with highly literate female populations maintained much lower growth rates.
Among the countries with low female literacy, Afghanistan stood out with the highest population growth rate at 4.5%, despite having a female literacy rate of only 9%. Similarly, the Yemen Arab Republic recorded the lowest literacy rate at 8%, alongside a high population growth rate of 3.3%. Mali, Sudan, and Pakistan followed a similar pattern, with female literacy rates ranging between 12% and 21%, while their population growth rates remained relatively high, spanning from 2.9% to 3.0%.
Conversely, countries with high female literacy showed noticeably slower population growth. Thailand and Colombia topped the literacy scale at 96% each, with population growth rates of 1.4% and 1.8% respectively. Sri Lanka achieved a 90% female literacy rate while recording the lowest population growth among all listed countries at just 1.2%. Finally, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic also demonstrated high literacy levels at 88% and 84%, corresponding to modest population growth rates of 1.4% and 1.9%.