The table shows estimated literacy rates for men and women in 2000-2004 in five regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. It also shows average world literacy rates for both genders for the same years.
According to the table, Europe has the highest literacy rates, reaching almost 99%. There is virtually no difference in literacy rates for European men and women.
In Oceania and the Americas, the figures for both men and women are almost the same. In both regions over 93% of the population is literate.
In both Asia and Africa, there are considerable differences in literacy rates between men and women. In Asia, only 72.5% of women are literate, whereas the figure for Asian men is 13% higher. In Africa, the gap is nearly double, with 53.9% of all African women being literate and 71.6% of the African men being able to read and write.
Overall, around 82% of the world population is literate. In Europe, Oceania and the Americas the literacy rates are the highest, with over 90% of the population able to read and write. Asia and Africa have lower literacy rates than the other regions in the graph.