Learning poverty at the end of primary school
Compare learning poverty at the end of primary school across 52 ISO-mapped countries or territories using one fixed 2021 official-source slice.
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Key Insights
- •52 ISO-mapped countries or territories have a finite 2021 observation.
- •South Africa has the highest published value (82.0170516967773 % of children at end-primary age).
- •Ireland has the lowest published value (2.3305127620697 % of children at end-primary age).
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 17.4% of children at end-primary age)
About This Statistic
The share of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a short passage of age-appropriate material—in other words, those who are below the “minimum proficiency” threshold for reading. This measure is defined as the union of two deprivations: 1) schooling deprivation and 2) learning deprivation. A child is considered schooling-deprived (SD) if he or she is of primary school age and out-of-school. The dimension of learning deprivation (LD) applies only for children in school, and identifies those pupils who are below the minimum proficiency level (MPL) for reading, as defined by the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML), measured in standard learning assessments, and reported in the context of the SDG 4.1.1b monitoring. This “union approach” to measurement reflects the choice that, as presented in the SDGs, all age 10 children must be both in school and learning. The final learning poverty measure combines the two dimensions in a single indicator using the following formula: LP = SD + [(1-SD) x LD]
MapTheory retains one fixed year, unit and explicit source slice. Only finite ISO-mapped observations are included; aggregates, missing values, non-ISO geographies and conflicting duplicates are excluded. No values are estimated or imputed by MapTheory.
Methodology
The share of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a short passage of age-appropriate material—in other words, those who are below the “minimum proficiency” threshold for reading. This measure is defined as the union of two deprivations: 1) schooling deprivation and 2) learning deprivation. A child is considered schooling-deprived (SD) if he or she is of primary school age and out-of-school. The dimension of learning deprivation (LD) applies only for children in school, and identifies those pupils who are below the minimum proficiency level (MPL) for reading, as defined by the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML), measured in standard learning assessments, and reported in the context of the SDG 4.1.1b monitoring. This “union approach” to measurement reflects the choice that, as presented in the SDGs, all age 10 children must be both in school and learning. The final learning poverty measure combines the two dimensions in a single indicator using the following formula: LP = SD + [(1-SD) x LD]
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Africa | 82.0% of children at end-primary age |
| 2 | Jordan | 62.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 3 | Morocco | 59.8% of children at end-primary age |
| 4 | Egypt | 56.1% of children at end-primary age |
| 5 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 41.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 6 | Oman | 40.6% of children at end-primary age |
| 7 | Azerbaijan | 37.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 8 | The Republic of North Macedonia | 33.0% of children at end-primary age |
| 9 | Saudi Arabia | 32.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 10 | Uzbekistan | 32.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 11 | Bahrain | 30.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 12 | United Arab Emirates | 25.9% of children at end-primary age |
| 13 | Slovakia | 22.1% of children at end-primary age |
| 14 | Qatar | 21.1% of children at end-primary age |
| 15 | Türkiye | 18.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 16 | Bulgaria | 18.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 17 | Montenegro | 15.8% of children at end-primary age |
| 18 | Germany | 15.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 19 | Austria | 15.0% of children at end-primary age |
| 20 | Israel | 14.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 21 | Czech Republic | 14.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 22 | Georgia | 13.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 23 | New Zealand | 10.9% of children at end-primary age |
| 24 | Kazakhstan | 10.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 25 | Cyprus | 10.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 26 | Albania | 10.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 27 | Malta | 10.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 28 | United States of America | 9.7% of children at end-primary age |
| 29 | Hungary | 9.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 30 | Australia | 9.1% of children at end-primary age |
| 31 | Serbia | 8.8% of children at end-primary age |
| 32 | Belgium | 8.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 33 | Latvia | 8.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 34 | Portugal | 8.0% of children at end-primary age |
| 35 | Spain | 7.3% of children at end-primary age |
| 36 | Slovenia | 7.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 37 | Macao | 7.2% of children at end-primary age |
| 38 | France | 6.6% of children at end-primary age |
| 39 | Poland | 5.6% of children at end-primary age |
| 40 | Italy | 5.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 41 | Hong Kong | 5.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 42 | Sweden | 5.3% of children at end-primary age |
| 43 | Denmark | 5.1% of children at end-primary age |
| 44 | Finland | 4.8% of children at end-primary age |
| 45 | Netherlands | 4.5% of children at end-primary age |
| 46 | Norway | 4.3% of children at end-primary age |
| 47 | Croatia | 3.9% of children at end-primary age |
| 48 | Russian Federation | 3.8% of children at end-primary age |
| 49 | United Kingdom | 3.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 50 | Singapore | 3.4% of children at end-primary age |
| 51 | Lithuania | 3.3% of children at end-primary age |
| 52 | Ireland | 2.3% of children at end-primary age |
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from World Bank World Development Indicators (2021).
View Original Source