According to the table presented, the overall literacy rates worldwide stems up to 82.2% for the years 2000 to 2004, reflecting the 87.2% of men and 77.3% of women that make up the total.
Among the five regions researched, Africa is found to have the lowest literacy rates, wherein the statistics comprised of only 71.6% of men and 53.9% of women from the continent. This entails that only a mere 62.5% of the population at that time had the ability to comprehend and analyze texts. On the other hand, 85.9% of the male population and 72.5% of the female population in Asia had the capabilities to mentally grasp literature, bringing the literacy rate to just 79.3% at the given time period.
In contrast, the literacy rates in Europe were the highest, reaching up to 98.8%, with 99.2% of men and 98.5% of women having the abilities to read and understand literature. Similarly, the total literacy rates in Ocenia and the Americas are 93.4% and 93.6%, respectively.
