LiteratesLiterates & &

Literacy Literacy RatesRates

Literacy

The National Literacy Mission defines literacy as acquiring the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic and the ability to apply them to one's day-to-day life

Literacy rate: The total percentage of the population of an area at a particular time aged seven years or above who can read and write with understanding. Here the denominator is the population aged seven years or more.

Number of LiteratesIndia : 2001, 2011

• A person (aged 7 and above) is considered literate, if he or she can read and write, with understanding, in any language.

Sex 2001 2011 Change

Persons 560.7 763.5 +202.8

Males 336.5 434.7 +98.2

Females 224.2 328.8 +104.6

(in millions)

Literacy Rate India : 2001, 2011

2001 2011 Difference(2011 – 2001)

Persons 64.8 73.0 +8.2

Males 75.3 80.9 +5.6Females 53.7 64.6 +10.9

(in %)

• Largest increase: Dadra & Nagar Haveli by 18.6 points (from 57.6% to 76.2%), Bihar by 14.8 points (from 47.0% to 61.8%), Tripura by 14.0 points (from 73.2% to 87.2%)

• Improvement in Female literacy is higher than males in all States/UTs, except Mizoram (where it is same in both Males and Females) during the decade 2001-11.

Gender Gap in Literacy Rate India - 2001, 2011

• Gender gap in Literacy Rate is steadily declining in every census. In Census 2011, the gap stands at 16.3 points

• The improvement in literacy rate in rural area is two times that in urban areas

• The rural urban literacy gap which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, has come down to 16.1 percentage points in 2011

2001 2011 Difference

Overall

India 64.8 74.0 +9.2

Rural 58.7 68.9 +10.2

Urban 79.9 85.0 +5.1

Literacy Rates (in %)

Literacy Rate – Rural Urban DifferentialIndia - 2001, 2011

• Gap between Literacy Rate in Urban and Rural areas is steadily declining in every census. In Census 2011, the gap stands at 16.3 points

• Improvement in female literacy is more than males in both rural and urban areas

• The gender gap in literacy has come down from 24.6 in 2001 to 19.8 in 2011 in rural areas and from 13.4 in 2001 to 9.8 in 2011 in urban areas

2001 2011 Difference

Males

India 75.3 82.1 +6.8

Rural 70.7 78.6 +7.9

Urban 86.3 89.7 +3.4

Females

India 53.7 65.5 +11.8

Rural 46.1 58.8 +12.7

Urban 72.9 79.9 +7.0

Literacy Rate - Male/Female (in %)

LITERACY RATE

AMONG FEMALES

States/UTs Ranked by Literacy Rate 2011

Top 5 States/UTs Bottom 5 States/UTs

States/UTs Literacy Rate States/UTs Literacy

Rate

Kerala 94.0 Bihar 61.8

Lakshadweep 91.8 Arunachal Pradesh 65.4

Mizoram 91.3 Rajasthan 66.1

Goa 88.7 Jharkhand 66.4

Tripura 87.2 Andhra Pradesh 67.0

(In %)

District wise comparison

Maximum Literacy rate Hoshiarpur-85.4% SAS nagar- 84.9%

Minimum literacy rate Mansa-62.8 Mukatsar-66.8

Rural Urban Literacy Rate

Increment in rural literacy rate in last decade- 7.73%

Increment in urban literacy rate in last decade-4.6%

Reasons Behind Declining Literacy Gap

Government policiesPrivitisationIncreasing number of schoolsPublic awarenessEconomic development of people