Estimated Literacy Rate in Türkiye

What this means

Best available estimate of the share of adults who can read and write a short simple statement about everyday life, labelled as reported UNESCO/WDI literacy or an OurBlueDot estimate.

Higher share of adults who can read and write; lower share of adults who can read and write.

Methodology & source

This is an OurBlueDot derived indicator, not a UNESCO-only layer. Every country-year value is classified as reported or estimated, with a confidence label. Tier 1 is World Bank World Development Indicators SE.ADT.LITR.ZS: adult literacy rate, population ages 15 and above, both sexes. The original producer is the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS); World Bank WDI is the import path. Direct UIS API reuse is not used. Literacy means being able to read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement about everyday life. UNESCO/WDI values can originate from censuses, surveys, or UIS calculations including GALP. WDI does not provide a usable observation-status flag, so those published values are labelled reported rather than split into survey versus GALP. The 2024 map is a latest-available snapshot: a native 2024 UNESCO value, a labelled carry-forward of an earlier UNESCO observation with its observation year, or an OurBlueDot estimate. Years 2000-2023 show only native UNESCO country-years. Snapshot carries are omitted from country history so earlier observations are not turned into a synthetic 2024 time-series point. Tier 2 applies only where no UNESCO literacy observation exists in 2000-2024. The estimate is WDI SE.PRM.CUAT.ZS, educational attainment at least completed primary among people aged 25+, used only when that latest value is at least 95 percent and the observation year is 2015 or later. The published attainment share is used as the estimate; OECD countries are not assigned 99 percent. Primary completion is a proxy for basic literacy, not a literacy survey, and covers ages 25+ rather than 15+. Confidence is high when the share is at least 99 percent and the year is 2020 or later, medium when at least 97 percent, and low when 95-97 percent. OurBlueDot does not interpolate missing years, invent values, assign 99 percent to all OECD countries, convert PIAAC scores, scrape WorldAtlas or World Population Review, or use CIA World Factbook fills in this vintage. Pre-2000 UNESCO literacy points are not used as current estimates. Countries without a defensible UNESCO value or qualifying attainment proxy remain no data. Missing data does not imply zero literacy. The metric is not youth literacy, male or female literacy, PIAAC functional-literacy scores, mean years of schooling, or a historical OWID literacy estimate. 2025 is omitted because WDI currently publishes that year as empty. Country rows are joined by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3; regional aggregates and territories outside UN-193, including WDI entities PSE and XKX, are excluded. Map ranks are one combined comparable-sample ranking of reported and estimated values among currently loaded countries (rank 1 is the highest adult literacy estimate), with origin labels. Higher values are generally more favorable for basic reading and writing skills; this is not a complete measure of educational quality or functional literacy.

Source: OurBlueDot derived indicator

License: CC BY 4.0

OurBlueDot derived adult literacy indicator, not a UNESCO-only layer. Tier 1 is World Bank World Development Indicators SE.ADT.LITR.ZS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics producer, CC BY 4.0 import path). Direct UIS API reuse is not used. Literacy means being able to read and write, with understanding, a short simple statement about everyday life. UNESCO/WDI values can originate from censuses, surveys, or UIS calculations including GALP. WDI does not provide a usable observation-status flag, so those published values are labelled reported rather than split into survey versus GALP. The 2024 map is a latest-available snapshot: native 2024 UNESCO values, labelled carry-forward of an earlier UNESCO observation, or an OurBlueDot estimate. Years 2000-2023 show only native UNESCO country-years. Snapshot carries are tagged and omitted from country history charts so earlier observations are not turned into a synthetic 2024 time-series point. Tier 2 applies only to UN members with no UNESCO literacy observation in 2000-2024. The estimate is WDI SE.PRM.CUAT.ZS, educational attainment at least completed primary among people aged 25+, used only when that latest value is at least 95 percent and the observation year is 2015 or later. The published attainment share is used as the estimate; OECD countries are not assigned 99 percent. Primary completion is a proxy for basic literacy, not a literacy survey. The attainment series covers ages 25+ rather than 15+. Confidence is high when the share is at least 99 percent and the year is 2020 or later, medium when at least 97 percent, and low when 95-97 percent. No CIA World Factbook fill, PIAAC conversion, WorldAtlas/WPR scrape, regional average, or homemade 99 percent is used. OurBlueDot does not interpolate missing years. Pre-2000 UNESCO literacy points are not used as current estimates because they can be decades stale. Countries without a defensible UNESCO value or qualifying attainment proxy remain no data. Missing data does not imply zero literacy. The metric is not youth literacy, sex-disaggregated literacy, PIAAC functional literacy, mean years of schooling, or a historical OWID literacy estimate. Country rows are joined by ISO 3166-1 alpha-3; regional aggregates and territories outside UN-193, including WDI entities PSE and XKX, are excluded. Native UNESCO coverage remains 150 of 193 UN members in 2000-2024, including 28 native 2024 reporters. The 2024 snapshot covers 180 of 193 members: 28 native UNESCO, 122 labelled UNESCO carries, and 30 attainment estimates. 13 members remain grey on the 2024 snapshot: Barbados, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Libya, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Yemen. Ranks on the 2024 snapshot are one combined comparable-sample ranking of reported and estimated values, with origin labels. Countries without a value receive no rank.