Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)
Percentage of people ages 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement about their everyday life.
Data table
| Year | Nepal (%) |
|---|---|
| 1981 | 20.57 |
| 1991 | 32.98 |
| 2001 | 48.61 |
| 2008 | 55.56 |
| 2011 | 59.63 |
| 2016 | 65.5 |
| 2017 | 66.87 |
| 2019 | 68.71 |
Per-source values, 2019
| Source | Dataset | Value | Year | Snapshot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNESCO Institute for Statistics | UIS | 68.71 | 2019 | 2026-08-09 |
| World Bank | WDI | 68.71 | 2019 | 2026-08-09 |
Sources currently disagree by about 0.00 percentage points for this indicator and geography. Both figures are shown below rather than one being picked as correct.
68.7–68.7 % two sources differ by 0.00 percentage points
Why do these differ, and what each source reported
UIS (LR.AG15T99, "Literacy rate, population 15+ years, both sexes") is the upstream compiler UIS_EST/NAT_EST source the World Bank republishes as SE.ADT.LITR.ZS -- the two are expected to closely agree in years both report. Genuine disagreement (rather than one simply having a value the other lacks) is the signal worth surfacing, since it would mean the Bank's copy has drifted from UIS's own latest revision.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), https://uis.unesco.org, extracted 2026-08-09. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 -- adaptations/derived figures must be shared under the same licence.
- Dataset
- UIS
- Snapshot
- 2026-08-09 · Fresh
- Licence
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
- Cadence
- quarterly
4a6c70c · open uis.unesco.org ↗
World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0)
- Dataset
- WDI
- Snapshot
- 2026-08-09 · Fresh
- Licence
- CC-BY-4.0
- Cadence
- quarterly
4a6c70c · open data.worldbank.org ↗Caveats
Self-reported or assessed in irregular census/survey years, not annual; Nepal has seen large gains since the 1980s from a low base.