education2021

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

Global Average
17.4% of children at end-primary age
Median: 10.2% of children at end-primary age
Countries Covered
52
with available data
Highest
South Africa
82.0% of children at end-primary age
Lowest
Ireland
2.3% of children at end-primary age
Top 5 Countries
1South Africa82.0% of children at end-primary age
2Jordan62.2% of children at end-primary age
3Morocco59.8% of children at end-primary age
4Egypt56.1% of children at end-primary age
5Islamic Republic of Iran41.5% of children at end-primary age
By Region
Key Findings
  • 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

Low (2.3% of children at end-primary age)High (82.0% of children at end-primary age)

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
1South Africa82.0% of children at end-primary age
2Jordan62.2% of children at end-primary age
3Morocco59.8% of children at end-primary age
4Egypt56.1% of children at end-primary age
5Islamic Republic of Iran41.5% of children at end-primary age
6Oman40.6% of children at end-primary age
7Azerbaijan37.5% of children at end-primary age
8The Republic of North Macedonia33.0% of children at end-primary age
9Saudi Arabia32.4% of children at end-primary age
10Uzbekistan32.4% of children at end-primary age
11Bahrain30.2% of children at end-primary age
12United Arab Emirates25.9% of children at end-primary age
13Slovakia22.1% of children at end-primary age
14Qatar21.1% of children at end-primary age
15Türkiye18.5% of children at end-primary age
16Bulgaria18.2% of children at end-primary age
17Montenegro15.8% of children at end-primary age
18Germany15.4% of children at end-primary age
19Austria15.0% of children at end-primary age
20Israel14.4% of children at end-primary age
21Czech Republic14.2% of children at end-primary age
22Georgia13.5% of children at end-primary age
23New Zealand10.9% of children at end-primary age
24Kazakhstan10.4% of children at end-primary age
25Cyprus10.2% of children at end-primary age
26Albania10.2% of children at end-primary age
27Malta10.2% of children at end-primary age
28United States of America9.7% of children at end-primary age
29Hungary9.2% of children at end-primary age
30Australia9.1% of children at end-primary age
31Serbia8.8% of children at end-primary age
32Belgium8.5% of children at end-primary age
33Latvia8.4% of children at end-primary age
34Portugal8.0% of children at end-primary age
35Spain7.3% of children at end-primary age
36Slovenia7.2% of children at end-primary age
37Macao7.2% of children at end-primary age
38France6.6% of children at end-primary age
39Poland5.6% of children at end-primary age
40Italy5.5% of children at end-primary age
41Hong Kong5.4% of children at end-primary age
42Sweden5.3% of children at end-primary age
43Denmark5.1% of children at end-primary age
44Finland4.8% of children at end-primary age
45Netherlands4.5% of children at end-primary age
46Norway4.3% of children at end-primary age
47Croatia3.9% of children at end-primary age
48Russian Federation3.8% of children at end-primary age
49United Kingdom3.4% of children at end-primary age
50Singapore3.4% of children at end-primary age
51Lithuania3.3% of children at end-primary age
52Ireland2.3% of children at end-primary age
Showing 52 of 52 countries

Topics

Data Source

This data comes from World Bank World Development Indicators (2021).

View Original Source