Illiteracy in the Severalcountries of the World

- DEPARTMENTOF THEINTERIOR BUREAUOF EDUCATION

BULLETIN,1929, No.4

ILLITERACYIN THESEVERAL COUNTRIESOFTHEWORLD.

JAMESF. ABEL SPECIALISTIN FOREIGNEDUCATION AND NORMANJ. BOND PRINCIPALSTATISTICALASSISTANT

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e CONTENtS

Paso Introduction vl Chapter I.Statistics ofilliteracy Value ofthe data 1 Nature ofthe data , 1 1 Census data;criteria .. 2 Inclusion ofracialgroups 2 Accuracy ofthecensus 3 Age limitsof illiteracy Forms of ------3 reporting 3 Making datacomparable Indices for 4 differentage groups 5 Graphicpresentation Sourcesof Ihe data 6 ChapterILAreas ofleast illiteracy Australia 11 Belgium Canada 11 Canal Zone .12 13 Czechoslovakia 13 Denmark ______13 Englandand Wales France 13 Irish FreeState 14 Japan 15 Net herlands 15 New Zealand 15 Norfolk Island 1 6 North Ireland 16 Norway 16 16 ' Territory ofPapua American Samoa 17 ...... IMMMMID 4.MIP 17 *Scotland %. Sweden 17 Switzerland 17 18 Union ofSouth Africa______United States ...... 18 ChapterIII.Political 19 divisionswith illitvracyrates between10 and50 per cent_ A Estonia 20 Hawaii 24 Hungary 24 24 Territory ofNew Guinea Alaska r41... 24 Argentina 25 Guam 25 r 25 III s ,

Iv CONTENTS

Chapter III.Political divisions with illiteracy rates, etc.Continued. Page

AMP ,SOM AM ...... Italy______Italy___ .1=i mbawaataa _ _ _ .. _ _...M.__ _ ... 26

Latvia______MOMON ..... MM. 26

Newfoundland and Labrador__... _ ... _ ...... ______... _ _ _ _ ...... _ .. _ ...... M 26

Virgin Islands. ... ______..._ _ ..._.... _ .. MO 27 . 'Cuba______Cuba_ ..... am m, mum - ma ...... wen OD _ 27

Finland______...... ______28

.m. .15 ..* ... , .. am .....g. ,..r.,lam. an .. m al.'WM alb ... Lithuania___ ....__ _ _ OM ...... 28

am a. ow Poland__ _ MID _ MP _ _...... ______..._ _ ..... ______... _ .m 29

Uruguay ______.. _ mo.mo _ 30 Yugoslavia...... _-aad aa.m 30 Bulgaria______30 Chile___ _ ...... ______-41------.... - 31 s Jamaica______.______.. 32 Colony of the Leeward Islands______-______32 9-

4WD MD OM M. Rumania______-_.:.-_-______I AM I MD m 32

SpainSpain_ _ ..______._ _ _ ... MD _0. _ _ _ _ MD 33 Chapter IV.Political divisions with populationoverhalf illiterate___ _ ... 34

NM 4MD IIM .m.am am Q.. M. AM .M.cal D am Mr MD am IM am MD Ceylon_ ma a M. _ _ _ _ 37 Colombia...... ______..... 38 British Guiana______._____ =1». MD IMO rm. ,m Ilo ola .M1 VW 38 British Malaya ... _ _ .. _ _ ... _ _.. _ _ ...a. M. No go. ap.m .m.m :P.M&am... .=__ 38

0 Mexico IMMDIMM 101 ..m.lam mmam Ma am_ am a...ma m...... an. om 39

Philippine Islands______. aMo ,m. OM m aMAMM. 40 PortoRico _ ..... ______..... 40 Union of Socialist Soviet Republics______40

Brazil____Momm _ ___ ...... pm . 42 ma. 42 Nicaragua______

Portugal______Ma._ ...... o..m..... dm ... AM AM 43

Venezuela______..... ______..._ _ m. d. . 40... _ _ . 43 Dominican Republic______.....MMOMMmam mommma. ma aMmom.m.m.m.a.aM...... Om mb 44

4M1 Guatemala____ ...... Guatemala.._ a= aMbaMamam MI Mal 4= 44

Dutch East Indies_____.. ______44

Egypt_ Egypt_ ...... _ ._. _ ... . M...... 45 India India______Maalw..... am alboaDaND 46 Unionof4touthAfrica______.... ______.. _ ...... _ _ 47 Chapter V.Summary of data presented and ofareasfor which adequate dataareot given______..... __ 48

Areasrwhich dataarenot given______MID _ am _ _ _ _ _ 49

Asia... .. 41. .... ______...... M.M. 49 Africa______... ______. ______49

South America______..._ _.. _..._...._ _ _ ...o. . I 4=140 am MO ar .m. .0. ema 00 50

Oceania _ ..MM... m.. _ _. _ _ _ _ .. NbAormaaa. 50

North America___ _... _ -. MN.... 1M MO. ImD ...... I 50 . Europe...... ___ __ ...... ______..... ______50

ChapterVI.Isilliteracy decreasing?__ MID .... ------. ------57

Factors promoting the spread of literacy_ MamImammaMemoana_ IMP _ 57

.Belief inpC)pulareducation . _ OW .... ._ _ _ _ _ wi r 58 Readjustment of nationalboundaries______..... ______._ 59 .

Education of minorities______. a a M. am _ _ ..... MID ,,, am 59

Education ofwomenand girls______._ . Mo .6 no Os am alb m...... 60 Statistical data___...__ __ .....____...... agmamaa, 00

Europe___OND ...... MIP MD 410 MI, 41 OM/ alb M mi. Ma M de 11, .1B, AMIr 4.am 60

Africa...... 41180.1. won NOman.mtalommam.mbemb s 41 a 4mio mla MID a&10 61 41111 CONTENTS

Chapter VI.Is illiteracydecreasing?Continued. , Page Asia___ 61 Oceania . _ ...... _ . _ 62 North America 62 South America 63 Chapter VII.Illiteracyandage groups______. ... 64 The educationalinventory_ _ _ MD _ 1=I MD ______...... 64 Bulgaria , 65 Spain IM el. OW ..____MOOD ..... eM MD Im 67 Comparative indices 68 The "can write"groups__ _ - _____ .... 68

TABLES 4. 3 Page 1 Percentages of illiteracyfor differentage groups in 15 countries,ascertained by thecensus__ _ _0 4111r..'- ...... 5 2.Political divisionswhichreport less than 10per cent illiteracy______10 3.Political divicionshavinganillitiracyrate between 10 and49.9per cent listed ingroupsof 10per cent range______..... 22 4.Politica1 divisionshavinganilliteracy rate between50 aWd 100per cent, listed ingroups of 10 Oer centrange.______36 5 Distributionbyage groupsof literates(can read and write) inBulgaria, censusof December31, 1920 65 6.Percentages ofpopulation and degreesof instructionfor differentage groupsin Spain,censusof 1920 ...... 67 MAPS

Maps showingpolitical divisionsby indices ofilliteracy: Page North America 52 Europe. Asia South America 54 Africa 55 Oceania______...... 56 INTRODUCTION

The mainpurposein preparing thisbulletin isto assemblesofaras practicable and publish inbrief form such officialstatisticsas areavail- ableOnilliteracy in the variouscountries of the world,to tell where those datamaybe found, and if possiWe,togiveageneral estimate of world-wide illiteracy. Incidentaltothispurpose,it becomesnecessary toshow the high percentage of the world's population for which statisticsof illiteracy are notgathered;to indicate the unreliability ofmanyof the popularly quoted statistics; andtovoice the need forcommoncriteria in determining. what illiteracy is and theage groups towhich they should*- ply, in order-that the datamaybemorecomparable anda truerpicture Qf thestatus of illiteracy may be possible. #The schedules for thecensusesof the countries of the worldof 1930 and thereabouts willsoonbe arranged.It is hoped thatthe various kinds of dat4 here presentedwill,tosome extent,help the makers of thoei- schedulestoarrangeschemes for collecting andreporting that are morenearlycommon toall countries,sothat by1935 the figures maybe presentedmoreclearly, definitely, andcomprehensively. VI ILLITERACY IN THE SEVERALCOUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER I

Statistics of Illiteracy . 41.

Value of the data.Illiteracy statistics formoneof the several indices used in the science of demographytomeasureroughly the d'egree ofapeople's culture.They indicatetoaconsiderableextent theeffecti'venessof its schoolsystem,the pride which theracein question takes in its language andliterature, and its determination to open toall its citizenry the medium ofwritten communication. They reflek the national attitude towardthe education ofwomen, indigenous" peoples, and minoritygroups;the enforcementofcom- pulsory education laws; and thegeneralprogressofeducationalpoli- cies.Theyareofusetothe administrator in formulatingpolicies of government.Theyareinadefinitesense anindication ofa country's financial and economicstatus.The ,.are avaluable supplement tothemoredetailedandmorefrequently gatheredstatistics of education published annuallyorbiennially bymost countries. ,Nature of the data.When given world-wideapplication, illiteracy statisticsastheyareat present gathered and reported,are'veryun- satisfactory for severalreasons.First, theyareoften basedon unre-' liable indices.Theper centofpersonssigning the marriage register by mark is the index used in Englandand Wales, the Irish FreeStaté, North Ireland, Scotland,the Netherlands, SwitAerland,and Uruguay. This is ohiviouslyinaccurateas a measureof literacy.It applies almost whollytopersons over18yearsofage;an& in the countries named, with'atotal of about 59,000,000of people,toless than 2per cent of the populationmuchtoo smalla groupfrom whichto draw deductions for the whole.MoreoPver,many personswhocanand do sign theirnamesmechanically havenoreal knowledge of reading and writing. Again, the 'percentthatcanneitfierread!norwriteamongthe conscripts,or armyrecruits,orthose liabletomilitary service, forms the basis of illiteracy statisticsin Swedea, Japan, Argentina,and the SovietUnion. This %alsocannotbeaccurate since it applies toa 2 WORLDILLITERACY sr

comparativelysmallnumber,to those that havereachedtheirma- jority, andto onlyone sex. Theper cent of illiteratesasreported inFrance fprtheyearsof four consecutivecensuses among the newlymarried,conscripts,and persons10yearsofageandover,show theconsiderablediscrepancy between thefirsttwo of these andthe datataken carefullyata census. Discrepanciesin illiteracydata obtainedby differentmethods inFrance

i . Per cent of I ;Per cent of illiterates ; I illiterates1 Per cent of :mong i Year ofcensus illjterates : those 10 . among newly i among ; years of manied ! conscripts : age and

i . over,by 116 : census 1901 gob op 5.0 I 1906 s 5. 63 lg. 5 ,* 1911 3. 5 6.15 12. 4 2.4 ; 1921 4. 26 I I 12.8 4. 07 8. 2 I15years of age andover.

In 1924 whenthe figuresfor theconscriptsworeobtained byan actual examinationof themenwhenthey reportedto thecorps, instead ofaccepting thestatements of themayors, ashad beendone previously, .thepercentagewas-8.89asagainst3.51 in1922. 9 In theyears 1918 to 1922, inclusive,among 130,944 Europeansin the Unionof SouthAfricacontracting marriage;0.52per cent signed themarriage registerby mark.Thiwnsusof 1918shmked2.08per cent of the Europeans10yearsofageandover asunableto read and write. CensusdataCriteria.Figuresgatheredat organizednational c'ensusesarethemost desirable, buttheyare not tobe had forabout half thepopulation ofthe world.When theyareobtainable,they are toooftenincomparablebecausethe definitionsof theterm "illiteracy " andtheages towhich theyapplyvarygreatly.Among the criteriafordeterminingilliteracyare:"Cannot read "; "cannot read andwrite";"cannet readorwrite";"cannot write inany language, regardlessof abilityto read"; "cannot writeashortletter to Afriendand'readtheanswer'" and"cannot read andwritea short letter." 44P To thecasual thinkerthe differencebetween 'can notread" and "cannot read and write"may seem negligible, butin thePhilippine Ishinds214,989,orapproximately25per centof thepersonswhocan read Spanishcan not Write it.Thesameistrue of 199,754 inSpain. In continentalUnited States448,340,or9.1per cent,of theilliterates canroad butnot write.More than420,000personsin Lithuaiiacan read butcan not write.Manyotherexamplesmay-,be cited. Inclusionof racialgroups.Anothersourceofincomparabilitylies in thevaryingpractices withregardto including certainracialgroups orindigenouspeoples.The illitera6rrate of 6per centfor themain- STATISTICS 3

land of the UniteStates appliestoallpersons10yearsofageand over,whether theyarenative,erforeign born,CAucasian, Asiatic, Negro,orIndian.TheratePf4.2eper centfor Australia doesnot take into considerationanindigenous polpulationof59,000.Those for Papua and NewGuinea applytoverysmallgroupsof resident Europeans; nativepeoples numberinghalfamillibnor more are not in the computatios.Indigenous peopleareexcluded from thereports for British Guiana,Colombia, Venezuela,andsomeadditional Ameri- cancountries, whiletheyareincluded forothers, notablyMexico, Brazil, andGuatemala.In the censuAof or PhilippineIslands the liferacystatus of nearlyamillion people/offoreign birth andof so-called"non-Christians"wasdisregarded.Thereturns from the Dutch East. Indiesarecomprehensive,including alikenatives, Euro- peans,and foreignAsiatics.Those fromJapan donot include about 21,000,000 of j-)eople ill Chosen,Taiwan, andKarafuto. Accuracy of thecebsus.In the actualcensustaking thecareand thoroughness withwhich theenumerators do t heir work differscon- siderably.The declarationOf theperson as tohis abilitytoread and write isgenerally accepted,and the resultis unquestionablyahigher percent of literacy recorded thanthe actualconditionswarrant.In the Armypsychological testingcarriedon amongthe.draftedmenin the United Statesin 1918, of out 1,552,256 recruits,24".9per centNiv.re . sent to the beta examination,anintelligencetest devised especially forilliterates,asbeirigin generalunable "to readand understand newspapers,and writeletters home,"though thecensustakentwo yearslater showedanilliteracyrate of less than one-fourth thatfound in the testing. The differenceis dueto the higher standards of the . tests and theGratercaretaken in applyingthem.As between the illiteracyrates published for the UnitedStates and those forIndia, the latterareundoubtedlymorereliable%The definitionof literacy in Indiasetsaltigher standardand in itsvery naturerequirsa more careful application. (Seepage46.) Age limits ofilliteracy.Theage groups towhich the crioriitfor illiteracyareapplied include5, 6, 7, 8, 10,or15yearsofageandover, and allages orthe total population.In theSpanish-speakingcoun- tries thepercentage is. usually computedonthe tolia population.In the UnitedStates and itsoutlyingparts, Canada, India, andseveral other countries,the grouping is10yearsofageandover..Themost commonly usedapplication isto 5yearsofageandover. Forms ofreporting.Data gatheredunder like criteriaand for the same age groupsare nowreported inmanydifferent fohns, depending onthe willorjudgmentof the directorin charge.Asgreataneed exists for uniformmethods of reportingasexists forsitnilarcriteria.

National Academy ofSciences.Vol. XV. PsychologicalItamining in the UnitedStates Army. Edited by RobertM. Yates. 4 WORLD ILLITERACY rode.. Making data comparable.Sources of incomparability duotodiffer- encesin thoroughness ofctisustakiug will always be.Theymaybe lessened butnoteliminated.'chose duetodifferences of definition and the exclusion ofsome races canbe removed byan agreement amongpolitical divisionsi,o adopt andusethesamecriteria and include allraces.Those dueto differences inagegroupingsmaybe overcome1?y adoptinga commonstandard,ortheymaybe madeto yield to mathematicaltreatment and giver,sults thatmust bereason- ablynéartotheexact.Often thereportscontain related statistics 'That,maybe usedtointerpret the illiteracyrate, if Oven forone age group,interms gf that for another. In the aggregate, children under 5yearsofigeareilliterate, anda rategiven for allages maybe changedto that for the population .5yearsofageandoverby' the simpleprocessof subtraoting theper cent (if itis known) of the population under 5yearsofagefrom the illiteracyrateand also from 100, and dividing the former remainder by the latter.If theper centof the population under5yearsofage isnotgiven, it is reasonableto use12.03percent for European c6untries2and14.4percent forLatin-American countries. Assume that 12 inevery100personsinagiven population arebunder 5yearsofage.ffthe other 88areall literate, including those unler 5 brings the illiteracy rateupto 12percerit;if theyareall illiterate, including those under5 makesnodifierrce in the index of100per centwhich appliesto the 88persons5 andover. As the number of illiteratesamorgthose 5yearsofageandover increases by 1 in each 88, the difference in final result between including and excluding those under5yearsofagedecreases by about 0.14 per cent.The followipg table shows the progressive change. Change ofpercent of illiteracy made by includingorexcludingpersonsunder 5years ofage 111-- ;. Per cent, I Per cent I ! Number of illiter- Differ- Number of illiter-Percent,Per cent Differ- if those j if those if those if those i ates in each 88, 5 ence in ates ineach 88, 5 i once in I nitwit of age andunder 5under 5 final 1, years of age andunder 5under 5 ! anal years are Iyears are 1 years areyears are over included excluded result over I includedexcluded result :

IS a 3 4 -7 Ql 0 12 0 0 12 0 8 20 9. 09 10. 91 1 13 1 13 11.87I,9 21 10.23 10. 77

2 14 2 27 11. 73 11.73 10 22 11.36 10. 63 8..... fffff e e". 15 3 4 11 6 21;..... 37 28.41 ",-3. 69 4 16 4 54 11.5 ! 50 62 56. 81 5.19 5 17 5 68 11 32 75 87 84.75 2.25

6 18 6 81 11 19 :! 88 100 100. 0 0.0

19 7.98 11.06 ;

By the above table, if thepercentof illiteracy for the totalpopulation is 37, then 25 inevery88persons5yearsofageandover are illiterate and therateamongthem is 28.41percent,areduction of 8.59percentbrought about by excluding those under5yearsofage.

IWhipple, Oeorgs Chandler. Vital statistics.An introduction to the science of demography. New . York, 1919, 7 11 rr. - _ 14-. - STATISTICS

The data gatheredatthecensusof 1920 for Spain showthepro- portion ofpersonsunder5yearsofageand the illiteracy(can not read).rate forth'etotarpopulationtoJe10.5per centand 52.2per cent, respectively; that is, inevery865persons5yearsof4geand over,447or46.59percentwereilliterate; thecensus enumerators actually found itto be 46.6percent.Illiteracyamongthe Bantus of the Union-of South Africais 90.3percent basedonthe total population.Theagedistribution isnot known.Excluding 12per100as being under5yearsofage,the illiteracyrate is 89per cent,the reduction in thiscasebeing only1.3 peiecent.By sucha proces", as this, illiteracy 'data whengiven foratotal populationmaybe changed to afair approximationfor those5yearsofageandover. Expressing eitherof theratesjust oonsidered interms of that for the population10yearsofageandoverisa morecomplicsited process,andmoresubjecttoerrorsincemanychildren under10viin know howto read and write.Thesamegeneral principle willapply. The smaller th6illiteracyratefor the total population,thegreater will .bethe reductiori by excludingthose in the lowerages. Indices for dikerentagegroups.-Differences in pitiesfor thesam6 country when d &rentagegrou`psareconsideredareshown for15 countries in Table1.These illiteracyrateswereascertained by acgaialcensustaking,not by computation.Whilenogeneral for- mula for expressingthe index for' the totalpopulationorfor that 5yearsofageandoverintermsofanindex for thepopulation lir yearsofageandover maybe deduced from the table,it givesafair idea of theresult thatmaybe expected.

TABLE1. Percentages of illiteracyfor differentage groupsin 16 countries,(lacer- . taincd by thecensus -

Per centPer centPer cent Per cent for 5 for 10 furpopu- 'for-total lation 5 Political division popula- yeara ofyears of age andage and to g tion over years, in- 4 over clusive

I. 3 s 4

Belgihm 18.9 10. 7 1 7. 9 AID ...AAA A AA Brazil I 75 5 I64 9 Bulgaria_ M. 54 80. 47 46. 73 73. 0 Canada 10.0 5.7 37. 2 Ceylon 65.8 60 1 .... 9 Dutch Eut Indies 96,7 1 94 8 Estonia 1 12. 66 10.1 4 41, 94 France A 9. 25 &41 n.7 Guatemala_ 89, 8 88. 82 India 92.8 91.8 90.5 97.9 Latvia 25.7 21.17 71. 02 New Zealand 4.94 1.6 28.68 1 t Portugal 70 9 67 M Spain 62. 2 46.6 42. 7 7& 6 Union of BouthAfrica 23. 2 f!543 2. 78 a 4 a e

416 aln.I.M1118.081 18years of age and over. s7 years ofage and over. I8yearsofage and over., I 16years of age and overt. 4 7 to 9, inclusive. I6 to 9, inclusive. . 6 WORLDILLITE*RACY

Graphicpresentation.Inanybrief presentationof the illiteracy situation inthe world,the devicesof tabular arrangément,and graphic illustrationarewell-nighessential.They have theadvantage of showing muchmaterial incompact, formsothat itmaybe quickly grasped.Theyaredistinctly dis*advantageousif theysuggestcom- parisons wherenoneexist..While it isnot possible in thepresent condition ofstatisticsonilliteracytolist thepolitical divisionsinan order of iankbasedonfinemeasures,it is Possibleby takinginto consideration thedifferent criteriaandagegroupingstoarr.)gethem roughly ingroupsof 10per cent range each, andtosome extentshow their relativestatus. A.ccordingly, that hasbeen done andthe tables inthe following chapters list thepolitical divisionsin whichtheper centof illiteracy by the best,evidenceathand isless,than10; 10to 19.9; 20to 29.9; etc.In eachcasethenameof the politicaldivision, theper centof illiteracy, thecriteria under whichthatpercentage is obtained, the number ofpersonsin theage orselectedgroup towhich th&secriteria apply, theper centwhich thatgroupis of thetotal population,the total population.and thesourceof the totalpopulationfigures,are given.These itemsareselectedOut of theverylarge numberthat maybe used,because they offerthe few factsnecessaryforagrdsp of the situation,and also affordto students of illiteracy andilliteracy statistics the basesforawiderangeof comparisons. Sources of the data.In gatheringthe evidencepresented thefigures to be found in the officialreportsof thenationalcensusestaken duringorabout theyear1920werechosen firstasthe latest,best, andmost nearlycorrect obtainable.Figuresantedating1916,except .as an occasional cheek and in the sectiondealing withrelative in- creasesand decreases,areomitted.Whilegeneral statisticsonillit- eracywill probablynot.soonbe availableuntil wellpast,the middle yearofanydecade, thoseover10yearsoldare notoi much value in showingthe conditionof affairsat the beginning- ofadecade. Where thedataarefackingin thecensus reports,the officialmarriage registem, conscriptionrecords,etc., have been used thoughthemany sourcesoferrorin themarefully appreciated.Thestatements of observers thatseem tobecompetent andimtSartialarequoted in afew instances-.Finally thestatisticalreports-en educationare some- times referredtoin verification ofthe dataonilliteracy. Considerablecarehas been takento make the main featuresof this reportascompleteaspossible.... Thelarge librarie%at handwere searched thoroughly.When it seemednecessary,inquirieswere directedto foreigngovernments andto well-established statistical bureaus'abroad.Ifanyimportant data havebeen omittedthe Bureauof Educationwill be gladto know of it. CHAPTER II ALeas ofLeastIlliteracy Theareaöf leasiiiilliteracyin theworld isinwestern Europe for the and, most part, alongthe shoresof theNorthandBalticSeas. Denmark, Norway,Sweden,andSwitzerlandclaimto have littleor noilliteracy amongtheirpeoples.Thoughthe indicesonwhich those clainis aiebasedareunreliable,the claimsare not far from correct.Among theforeign born10yearsofageandoverin Canada, the censusof1921 showed11,352 Danes,of whom1.74per cent unable were to read and write;43,025Norwegians,1.4per cent; 38,175 Si-edes,2.67 ; per centand4,595 Swiss,1.52per cent)Theliteracy quality ofthe emigrantsserves asacheckontherat4as givenfor the Mothercountries. All these four nations,eachcomparativelysmallinareaand lation, have popu- strong schooldcysterns,and bothpub&opinionand require that law the childrenattend.WiththeexceptionofSwitzerland, their peoples arehomogeneousand, whiletherearethreeracial sions of divi- Switzerland,eachdivisioniscomparativelypure within itself.Allarein onlya slightdegreesubjectto immigration.All havemaintained nationalgovernments longenoughto beresponsible for thestatus of literacywithintheirborders. Closelybordering on_thissectionof littleor no illiteracyare Belgium,Czechoslovakia,EnglandandWales,-Finland, Irish Fr6e France,the State,theNetherlands,NorthIreland,andScotled, with smallpercentages of theircitizenrythatcan not., at least, and write. read Czechoslovakiaisarecentlyestablishednationalentity. Its literacyrate is sti/Vaffectedby theformerrule of Most of Austria-Hungary. thesecountries,like thefourpreviouslymentioned, givingof their are anwealthto others byemigrationratherthan receiving itb immigration.Of24 Europeandivisions,Ireland standshighest (30.5percent) intheper cent which itsnative-born livingoverseas is ofthepopulationof themothercountry.Norway (14.8percent), Scotland 44.1percent), andS*eden(11.2per cent), aresecond,third, andfourth,respectively;EnglandandWales seventh;and are Denmarkeighth.Theyareingeneral,above die medianper cent of- emigration.' 41111110.1, 3Dominion ofCanada. DominionBureau ofStatistics.Illiteracyand school A stidy ofthemums of 1921, attendanceInCanada, withsupplementarydata.Ottawa,1928. ICensus of thepopulation of theIrish FreeStateon April 18,1926. StationeryOffice, 1928, Preliminaryreport.Dahlia,

r e 8 WORLD ILLITERACY

. Atistralia,%anada,New Zealand,.and the United'States of America have populationspredominantlyEuropeanorthé descendantsof Europeans.They..are, orhave been untilashort timeago,subject toaconsiderable'infiuxof immigrants.Their literacyratesarethe productsnot of theirownsclioolsalone, but ofthose of severalother countries.Native whitesin the Unite&Statesare2per centillit- crate; foreign-born, 13.1per cent.The Canadian-bornof Canada are4.8per c,entilliterate; theBritish-born,0.76per cent:and the foreign-born,12.11per cent. The Unitécl Statesis the onlynation with.morethan100,000,000 inhabitants that hasarate of less than 10per cent,and thatrate, it must be remembered, includes allraceswithin thecontinental borders. The Europeanpeoples in the Unionof South Africa,Papua, and Malaysia have carriedwith them theirbelief in education;have established schools fortheirownchildren; andareextending schemes for school trainingtothe indigenouspopulations. The Canal Zone,Norfolk Island,and Samoaarestrategic military and trading points thatareheld and mannedby the peoples of literate nations. Japan is the only orientalnation that hasdeliberately andby its 6wnefforts reduced itsilliteracyrateonthe central islandstoa ;western European level and has donesoinasurprisingly shorttime, aboutonegeneration.Theverylowrate (0.88percent) given in the table isnotentirely borneouttysensusfigures for Japanesein other countries; those inCanadaare20.4per centillitirate;those in the United States,11per cent. The 22 political divisionsetch of whiGhreportsanindex of less than 10percentarelisted in Table2,page10.Their population,as shown by column6, is 312,094,449.This is the totalfor whichsome form of illiteracystatisticswasobtainable. Tothismust be ;added the figures forEupen and Malmed57,and theaboriginalgroupsin Australia, 1Iew Zealand,and Papua (in all422,994)asindicated in the footnotesto the table, makingacombinedpopulation of312,- 517,413,or17.17per centof the1,820,000,000 estimatedasthepopu- lation of theearth about1920.The combinedareais 11,110,995 squaremiles,or alittlemorethtinone-fifth.. (21.3percent) of the earih'slandarea,estimatedat 52,000,000squaremiles, exclusive of uninhabited polar regions. As to absolute number'ofilliterates, thereportsare:Australia, 220,10Q4 Belgium,515,308; Canada,341,019; Canal Zone,751; Czechoslovakia,866,048; France, 2,657,271;New Zealand,47,315; Norfolk Island,40; Papua (Europeans),148; American Samoa,239; Union of SouthAfrica (Europeans),40,241; and the UnitedStates, 4,931,905. The total is9,620,385 for the12 countries named. Den- mark, Englandand Wales, the IrishFree State, Japan,the Nether- 9 ATZAS OF LEAST ILLITERACY 9 lands, North Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland countries for which unreliable indiceswereusedmust have at least 600,000. Eupen and Malmedy and the aboriginalgroupsmentioned abovemaybeestintateeashaving 250,000 illiterates.Thisgroup of political divisions includes in its population approximatelytenand one-half millions ofpersons10yearsofageandoverthatcannot read and write. The countriesarenamed in alphabetical order in the hope that the reader willnotdraw hasty conclusionsastorelative rank based onsmallpercentages,*or evenfractions ofa percentworkedout from data thatareatbest only partially comptirable.Following the table isashort discussion, including references, for each political division. TABLE Political diPisions which report less than 10 per cent Political division illiteracyPer cent of De5nition on which the per cent is based whichtheNumber classpersons that to of illiteracyin isthat of classtotalPer centwhich population Total Source of total laden data I popu- - per cent popula- 1 2 3 . applies tion e I I I - 4. 7 5 of 4, 3 CanadaAustraliaBelgium 57. 19 I 810 yearsyears of of ageage age and over, can not read and write unable to read and write ___ .. 6, 682,522,748, 072890886 76.88.87. 03 7,5, 435,406, 734299 CensusCensus of Dec.of Apr. 31, 19204, 1921. CzechoslovakiaCanalDenmark Zone ..- . . .. _ 5. 7 . 02i 7Of10 school years years of of age age and andand over, over, unable to read unableand write_ to readwrite _ _ ._ ...... 12, 345, 13, 2145157 90.74. 7 0 13, 613, 1728, 788, 483 17, 964 CensusCensus of ofFeb.of 1920. June 15, 1921.1, 1921. 34 age and over, can not read and write ...... 3, 267, ti31 1, 1921. FranceEngland and Wales ...... 8. 2 j Signing10 the marriage registeryears by mark, 1924. of age and over, can not read and write_ _ _ .... _ 32, 437,592, 832 2f14091 82. 7 LS ' 39,37, 209,866, 518699 Census ofof Juneof !Var. Feb. . 20, 1921.6, 1921. Irish Free State 2. 0 31, 1.045 . 4 Census . _ . 88 Signing the marriage registey by mark, 1921 _ ...... rt.21, 901 1 8.7 59, 736, 8222, 972, 802 Census of Ai r. 18, 1926. Japan 315 1 Conscripts of 1925, could not write and figure ...... 4 Census of Oct. 1, 1925. NewNetherlands Zealand ..... 6.4 93 65Signing the marriageyears register by mark, 1918 ofof age and over, can not read and write ...... 966, 99, 054128 87. g $ 6, 1,865, 099, 314 449 i CensusCensus ofof Dec. Oct. 31,15, 1920. 1916. Norfolk bland 6 . 2. 1 years - age and over, unable to read or write 6:4 88.4 s. 717 Census of 4, 1921. NorwayNorth Ireland _ 7 7. 8 5Signing the marriage register of by mark, 1923 . _ 15, 948 F0,1 90. 1. 2 , 2, 1,649. 256, 775 322 ', CensusCensus ofof Dec. Apr.Apr. 18, 1911.1, 1920. SamoaTerritory of Papua (Europeans). , 10 years yemrs of age and over unable to read and write_ ... 1. 5, 683 0 2. 078 Census of Apr. 4, 1921. I age 70. 5 (U S ) 4 2 and over can not write 8, 056 1 of 1920. SwedenScotland _ -v - _ 2429 SigningLiable theto marriage register by mark, 1923 military service, 1921-22, can not read and write 70, 400 1. 4 5,4. 882,904. 497489 CensusCensus ofof J Dec. une 31.20, 1920. 1921. SwitzerlandUnitedUnion ofStates SouthiAfrica (Europeans). - ...... 6 2.080 39 Signing10 the marriage registeryears by mark, 1906 to of age andand over,over, can not read and write unable to write in any 1910 language. . 82, 739, 315 1.036, 274, 729816 18. 378.73. 12 .11 106, 710,1 620 3,1,418,060 880, 320 CensusCensus ofof 1920.1918. Dec. 1, 1920. 3I Unless otherwise or 3OI NotExclusive including of full-blood Eupen and Malmedy, withstated, 60,213 the date is that of the latt aboriginals, estimated at about people. organized census.60,000. 203,7r>4. 15. v 147 AppliesNotPracticallyNot to the no small illiteracy. European including 52,781Chosen, Maoris. 17,264,199; Taiwan, 3,655,308;See and Karafuto, page population only. 16. Natives estimated at 250,000 not included. See page o BasedNotEuropeans only; inclnding outlyingon the population of 1910, 3,314,000. for illiteracy parts. among the Bantus, see pages 38 and 47. 11. AREAS OF LEAST ILLITERACY 11

Australia.The information inrespect to educationCollectedat thecensusin Australianeveramountedtomorethanastatementasto abilitytoread and write.The resultsarebroadlyadivision of the population into three maingroups:. (1) Can not read; (2)canread, butcan notwrite; and (3)canread and write.Group 1 is mostly children. % Group 2 is comparatively small.In 1921, 86,642persons out ofatotal population of5,435,734 did not give the required information. Education dataweregatheredatthecensusof April 4,1921. Compared with those of April 3, 1911, theyare: Education of population in A ustralia'

(Exclusive of about 60,000 full-blood aboriginals)

April 4, 1921 Apr. 3, I 1911 increase Particulars in 10 years Men Women Total Total

I Can not read: Under 5yearsofage -1 . 305, 522 204, 684 600, 206 52.5, 633 74, 573 Over 5years of age a , 114, 573 91, 015 205, 588 139, 749 65, 839 i English language: , Read and write Z 278, 768 2, 234. 641 4, 613, 409 3, 650, 030 86a, 379 Read only 6, 678 6, 972 13, 650 15,009 1,469 Foreign language only: Read and write 12, 704 2, 673- ; 15, 877 26, 210 10,833 Read only 591 371 962 2, 647 1, 686 Not stated 44, 134 42, 508 86, 642 95, 727 9, 086

Total 2, 762, 870 I Z 672, 864 I. 5, 4 36, 734 4, 455, 045 980, 729

I Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, Apr. 4, 1921. Census Bulletin No. 18.Summitry for the Commonwealth of Australia.Prepared by Chas. H. Wickens, Commonwealth statistician, Melbourne.

Computing themoreimportantpercentages from the table by dis-. regarding the children under5yearsofageand those from whom the informationwasnot obtained,atotal of 4,748,886personsremains, for which the following dataareapplicable:

Per cent of literacy of populationover5yearsofage,Australia ...IM - Particulars I? Number oftPer oent ' persons

Can not read: Under 5yearsofage 600, 206 100

Over 5 years of age , 205, 588 4. 3 Englishor aforeign language: Read and write ,62K, 786 . 95. 3 Reid only ; 14, 512 4

AND The illiteracyrate among persons 5 yearsofageandoveris4.3 per cent or4.7per cent,according whether the criteripn is abilityto reador to ability read and write. Ar* Belgium.-The basis of illiteracy statistics is thecensusreturn rendered by the head of each family, normallyevery10years.Lit- 33194-29-2 12 WORLD ILLITERACY eracyis definedasknowing howtoread and write, and allperms not having that knowledgeareconsideredtohe illitezates.The literates amounted in 192*to 6,156,181 out ofai;opulationof 7,406,299, or83.1percent.3This appliestothe total population.Leaving outof consideration the childrenyoungerthan 5yearsofage,the percenfage becomes89.3; leaving out. (hoseyoungerthan 8yearsof age,it is 92.1percent; and ifonededucts thoseyoungerthan15 yeamofage,it is 96.7percent. The following table gives bysexandage groupsthe absolutenum- bers andpercentages ofpersonsknowing howtoread and writets determined by thecensusof 1920:

Literacy bysexanduge groupsin Beigiu

Person Poroont.igiv Agegroups Men Women Men Women Totzt;

From 8 to less than 15years 439, 7,0,) 447, 473 91.1 143,1 92. 1 From 15 to less t han 20years 349, S3s 354, 009 96.1 97.4 96.7

From 20 to less than 25years 329, 21Si 333, 437 96.3 96.7 .5 From 25 to leks than 30 years _ .1 O. 281, 596 296, 40s 96,4 96.1 94ì. 2 From 30 to less than 40years 514, 384 i 524, i416 95.4 94.9 95. 1

From 40 to less t hap 50years 447 319 ! 44s, sO.rb 4.i3.6 4 2 92.9 From 50 t0less than 60years 322:918 323, Oki 941. t) S7.0 S). 0

From 60 to less than 70years MP ..... NA,sis 197, r) *13 7S.9 S2. 3 70 years andover 97, 906 , 110. 2410,444. 77.6 6.4 1. 9 - -

Canada.III theprocessof taking the sixthçiensusof Canada iii June, 1921, informationwascollected under twoileadings:(0 "Can read," and (2) "Can write"and the instructionswere: If theperson canread inanylanguage, the question will beanswered intte propercolumn by writing "Yes," and by"Not' if unableto read. If theperson canwrite inanylanguage the question will be answeredin the propercolumn by "Yes," and by "Nu" ifwnable to write. The abstract of thecensus'givessomeilliteracy data for thepopu- lation5yearsofageandoverin ordertomake certain comparisons with prevjouscensuses,but in the main the field of illiteracyis fixed at 10yearsofageandover,and computationsaremadeonthat basis. In 1921ihepercentage of allpersons over10yearsofage not-knowing howto read, including Indians,was5.1per cent.If the standard of the United States, inabilitytowriteinanylanguage, is applied, thepercentage is 5.7per cent. The data for the totalpopulatkw of8,788,483aresummarizedas follows:

Annuaire statistique de la Belgiqueet du Congo Beige.Cinquiente-troisième aunt°, 1923-24.Brus. elles, Imprimerie Lesigne,1926. Sixthcensus ofCanada, Bulletin XVIII. Published byauthority of the Hon. Thomas A. Low, Min- ister rif Trade and Commerce. R. H.Coats, Dominion statistician, Dominion Bureauof Statistics, Ottawa.E. S. MacPhail, chief statisticianfor population. AREAS OF LEAST&LITERACY 13 r Literacy and illiteracy in Canada

5 years of age ; 10 years ofage Particulars andover and over

V 41

Number ofpersons 7, 730, 833 b 6, 682, 072 Can read and write 6, 957,412 6, 298, 704 Per cent 90 94. 26 Can refiC1 only 58, 254 42,349 Per cent .75 .64 Can not readnor write 715, 167 341, 019 Per cent 9.25 5.10

Of the 110,814 Indians included above, 80,037are10yearsofage andover,and 41,695,or52.09percentof them,areilliterate. The reader willnotethat, in this population kvithahigh degree of literacy, the exclusion ofpersons.5 to 9yearsofage,inclusive, lowers the illiteracyrate 4.26percent. Canal Zone.The definition of illiteracy is that commonly used in censustaking in the United States.The population is 54.1percent white;45.6per cent negro;and 0.3per centof %tiler coloredraces. There isnoilliteracyamongthe native whites; 1.9percentamongthe foreign-born whites; and 10.2percentamongthenegroes. The lowper centof illiteracy in the Canal Zone is due in partto an excellent schoolsystemand inpart tothe fact that the occupations of thezone areofakind forwhichtheapaty toread and writeare important.' C:echoNlorakia.Thecensusof 1921 has, it is true, established that in Czeckhoslovakia therewereoply 7.02percentilliterates.Never- theless, Slovakia had 14.71percent-and Subearpathian Russia 50.03 percent,while in Bohemia therewereonly 2.1per cent,in Moravia 2.65percent.,and in Silesia 3.12percent.' Denmark.School attendance for children between theagesof 7 and 14wasmade compulsory in Denmarkasearlyas1814.The law is enforced byasystemof fines:It hasnowbeen in effect for

Ni13years,and the nation hasnot morethan two-tenths of 1percent of its children without instruction and notmorethan one-tenth of 1percentilliteracyamongthosepastthe firsttwoorthreeyeamof schoolage.Education, besides being compulsory, istoalarge extent,free.During the World War the paternal activity of the Stateevenincludedtwofree mealsadaytoall school children., England and Wales.The register general for England and Wales rePorts that in1924, in, 296,416 marriagesregisteiedr995menand 1,041womensigned with marks.Thepercentof illiteracy (0.34per cent)maybe far from correct, since it is basedononly 1:5percent of the population and toarestrictedage group.In England and

Fourteenthcensus of theUnited States, 1920.Population: Canal Zone.Washington, D. C., Bureau 11 of the CensitL, Amok, MtkiiT.Organization de l'Easeignement eu TchOeosluvaquie. L 14 WORLDILLITERACY Wales approximately7,588,000persofis,oraboutone-fifth total of the population,areattendingorganizedschools.Illiteracymust besmall in amount, butnot,sosmallasthisimperfect,indexindicates. France.-Thedegree ofinstructionundertheheadings:"Knowing howto read and write";"Illiterates".; and" Degreeofinstructionnot declared,"are reportedfromFrancefor thecensusesof1901,1906, 1911, and1921. IlliteracyinFrancein 1901 and 1906

1906 1901 Degree ofinqruct:on

Men Women Men Women

-01. Less than10years of age:

Knowinghowto read and _ write 1,060,rIS 1,063, 744 I, 025, 1 1,044, 673 Illiterate andnot declared.... 2.391,436 10years of age andover: 2, 364, 206 2, 366, 043 2,351, 943 Knowing howto read and write.. ¡ 13.617. 277 Illiterates. 13,303,770 13.206, 564 12,74S. 069 Literacy .i 1.762, 319 2,6.-17.173 '2, 062, SO2 3, 065. 497 not declared ______.. . 201, C31 356,(X19 25C).1.,'4.; 3Z3, 717 , 1-- Total ..... _ 19,099, 721 19,744,932 1S 916, K'qz9 41 01; 19,533, 899 Restiltatsstatistiques dureeensement gl,n(%ral de lapopulationefieetut le4 Mars.1906. Deuxièmepartie.Paris, ImprimerieNationale,1910. Tome I, Iltiteracy in Francein 1901 and 1911 1 1 Degree ofinstruction 1911 1:,01

Populationless than5years of age . 5 to 14ears: . 3, 464, 892 3, 574,905 . Knowing howto read andwrite Illiterntes 6, 241,620 5, 078, 872 Degreenot declared 986, 587 1, ONO, 917 15years and . . _ ...... 383,446 over: %or 271, 447 Knowing howto read and write , Illiterates 24, g63. 755 22, 876, 431 Degree ofliteracynot declared 3, 660,05ii 4, 930, 881 Age notdeclared 508,306 . 509, 539 S3, 471 . 118,796 Total 39, 192, 1334 38, 450,788

I I Resultatsstatistiques dureoensement Orusral de lapopulationOccults le6 Mars,1011. Deutièmepartie.Paris,ImprimerieNationale,1915. Tome I,

cm,

Illiteracyin Francein 1921 1

Degree ofinstruction Men Women

5 to 9years ofage: 1 Knowing howto read and write 11, Illiterates 974,324 990, 817 Degree ofliteracynot declared 298, on 280,166 231.012 226, 930 Total 1, 5(13, 388 1, 497,913 10years ot age andover and agenot given: Knowinghowto read andwrite. Illiterates 14, 241, MI 15, 537, 909 illiteracynot declared 1, 056, 44 1, 600, 727 430, 751 530. OSO Total 1111Nr. 15, 729,146 17, flopk 776 r I Bulletinde lastatistiquegOnéral de lee trots laFranceet du serviced'observationdes prix. mois. TomeXV,Fascicule IV,Juillet,1926. Paraissanttous Paris,LibrarieF61ixAkan(Page410.)

- JiREASOF LEASTILLITERACY 15

In 1901,out of 31,082,932persons1 0yearsofageandoverthatgave the information,5,1 28,299,or1 6.5per cent, could not read andwrite. On thesamebases, in1906out of. 3 0,746,168,therewere3,825,12i illiterates,or12.4per cent;and in1921,out of 32,437,091the illiterates numbered 2,657,271,or8.2per cent.Theage group investi- gated in1911was1 5yearsandover,and theilliteracyratewas'12.8 percent. When thesefairlyexact figures arecompared withthose often .1 quoted forthe conscripts,the latterare shownto be muchtoo low. I (Seepage5.) Irish FreeState. Conditionsin Irelandmade it impracticableto takea cansusin192 1.The abstractof thecensusof NIarch22, 1926, is availablefor severalitems, butnotas wtfor education.Accord- ingtothe annualreport (1923) oftheregistrar, generalfor Saorstat Eireann,2.6per centof themenand 1.4per centof thewomenin the Irish FreeState signedthe marriageregister bymark. Japan.ForJapan, statisticsof illiteracytakenatanorganized census are not available.Out of521,991 conscriptscalled in1925, 4,5 76,or0.88per cent,couldnot write and figure.'Theneweduca- tionsystem of interiorJapan hasbeen inpractice foralittlemore than30years.The schoolageof theJapanese childbeginsonthe next day afterreaching hissixthyearand endsonthe daywhen he completes hisfourteenthyear,the wholeperiod coveringa termof -eight.years.His schoolingcommences at the beginning ofthe first schoolyearwithin theschoolageand-mayend withthe conclusionof the elementaryschoolcourse.In 1900, 80per centof all childrenof ; schoolage werein school:in1910 thepercentage had increasedto 97; and in1 922toalittlemorethan99. Among the olderpeople there are some yet whoareilliterate, butthe numberis few and thepercentage small. This doesnot applyto Chosen, whereonly about*¡per centof the seventeen andone-fourth millionsof peoplearein school;to Taiwan, where 7bout7per cent9f the3,655,000 inhabitantsareattendii:ig school;or toKarafuto,where thepupils number10per centof the 203.,750 people.(See alsopage3.) Netherlands.Asearlyas1840, W. E.Hickson,avisitorfrom Englfindto the Netherlands,wrote: Therecan be no hesitation aboutthe udiversalityof educationin Holland. We'bwereassured by Mr.Prinsen, thedirector ofthe NormalSchool at Haarlem, that inthattoWn,containing 21,000inhabiCants,therewas not a child of theage of six years unable to read; the'proportionactually in schoolwas oneinsevenof the wholepopulation.Butourbeliefonthis subjectdoes notrestonthe state- ment of others,or upon official data, whichthere is ofte1goodreasonfor MIS- trusting, butupon our own personalobservations.We foundthe smallesttowns and thepoorest villagesin Hollandaswell providedwith schoolsasthe town of - mI . - R6sum6statlatique del'empire duJapoo, 41Apnea.Tokyo, 1927. 1c WORLDILLITERACY 4. Haarlem;and even on sandymoors, in thgpinlandpart of the.-world thecountry, inout-of- sort ofplAces,whereveraneighgorhood dren existedin which40or50 chil- could bediscoveredwithinthecircuit ofa mile, a school. we found themcollectedin Norwere theseschoolslike-our ordinary many of them dame andcharityschools; beingexcellent,and allabovemediocrity.° Of the conscriptscalledout in1923,0.35per cent could -neither readnorwrite;the percentagewas highest.,2.07per cent, inDrenthe. Of thepersonsmairiedinHMS, 0.22per cent of themalesand0.41 per cent of thefemalescould not sign themarriagecertificate.9The Dutchstatisticalbureau no longer publishesfiguresOn illiteracyin the Netherlands.' 0 New Zealand.Aquinquennialcensusisnow taken NewZealand. regularlyin Seventeencensuseswere takenbetween1851 and 1921,inclusiye.Datafor edlicationwere pithecedat eachone,but thosefor1921are not available. Theyaregiven indetailbyage groups, provincialdistricts, thesexes,andmetropolitanandsuburban areasfor thecensusof1916.1°

Eillicallonofpopulationin NewZealand

T.years (age Undernyears From 5to 9 andcL ofage years ofage. Age not inclusive specified Literary _ Nam- Per Num- Per : Nurn- Per Num.-Per ber cent her (went her eent her i cent Able to readand write 9011.0.vi 06:, _ _ . Ableto readonl _ , 86,IS9' 1 y_ . ._ _ , 7.42V 71.32 06383 53 .77 ; ' I Cannot read _ 3,162 2.02 ; 10 .68 39, WV) 4. 17 132, ' Not 055 1(X) 31, .491 . stated,... , ...... __ 11, 7.ris i 211. 00 96i15. 79 I 1. 976 !. .... _ _ _ _ 97 1 Total 96fi 12?N ..132 OM _1 122,818 1,266 '

411( ThesefiguresincludeNorthIsland,South Islaríd, andthe StewartIsland, ChathamIslands.NativeMaoris(52,781)are not taken intoconsideration.

Nodolk g Island.Theislandhada population of717 in1921, and ofthese634were5 yearsofageandover.Forty,or6.3 couldnot read." per cent, V. North Ireland.In1923, 2.2per cent of thehusbands of the and2per cent wivessignedthemarriageregisterbymarks. Norway.The BureauCentroldeStatistiqueat Oslo writes:"As theobligationto attend schoolsiscompulsory,there ispracticallyno illiteracyinNorway."

Illickson, NV.E. Anaccount of thepresentstate of educationin Holland, Stabs,witha view to the Belgium,and theGerman practicalsteps whichshould betaken for popularinstruction improvingandextendingthemeans of in GreatBritain andIreland.London, 1840. Statesman'sYearbook, l92,3. 14 Resultsof the census of theDominion, ofNewZealandiakenfor the night Part V,Education. of the 15thof October,1916 By MalcolmFraser.Wellington,1918. It Censusof the Commonwealthof Auitralia,April 4. 1921.Census Bulletin Island.Preparedby the No.5. Territory ofNyirfolk Cwimonwealtbstatistician,Melbourne. AREAS OF LEASTILLETEPACY 17

Territory ofPapua.-1.->apuahasan areaof 90,540squaremiles. The native population ifPapuans, Melanesians, and Negritos isestimatedat 250,000.The number of nonindigenouspeople, mostly European,was2,078 in 1921.Of these, 196were'under 5yearsof age.Among those 5yearsof ageondover,148,or7.8per cent,could notread. No illiteracy dataaregiven for the native population.'2 American Samoa. AmericanSamoa had in 1920apopulation of 8.056, of which only 41werewhitepersons.Native Polyneianswere 96per cent;those or" mixed race"about 3per cent.Ninety-six persons outofevery100 of the population 10yearsofageandover werereportedasabletoread and write,acondition explainedas"due largelytothe educational zeal of the Christianmissionaries who established schools in the Samoanvillagesasearlyas1830." '3For the mostparr the abilitytoread and write is restrictedto reading and writing in the English language. Scotland.Thecensusschedule for Scotland,1921, did not include aniteinoneducation.Estimates of illiteracyarebasedonthereport of the register general ofScotland for 1923, which shows thatin 35,200 marriages only84menand 122womensigned the marrtageregister with marks.To thismaybe added thestatement: Heated discussionsasto the high education rate would be lessened by bearing in mind that Scotland is possiblynot now so far ahead of other countries inna- tional educationasshewasandour(England's)noweducationalarrangement!**

have not yet had time to bear fruit . In Scotland fewthereareto-day whocan not both read and write." Sweden.The Kungliga StatistiskaCentralbyrftm writes: No data regf:Hingthe nlimber of illiterates in thewhole populationare gathered, eitherata census or in any other way. On the other hand,literacy is annually investigatedamongthose liable to military serv:ce.In the educationalyear1921-22 the resultwas as seenfrom the following table:

eft Literacyamong.those liableto military service in Sweden

0.111 NW' Accomplishment ReadingWriting - . . 0. M. Per centPer cent flood accomplishment 43. 13 38. 27 Fairly well trained 38. 75 61.49 Lacking knowledgeto .12 .24 Total 1OOO 100.00

Accordingly,onefinds that practically allwhoareliable to military service canread and write. It is not known whatproportion of illiteracy existsasbetween city andcountry people.

12 Census of the Commonwealth ofAustralia, April 4, 1921.Census Bulletin No. 4.Territory of Papua. Prepared by the alth statistician. Melbourne. 11 Censuso merican Samoa. Bureau of the Census, Washington,D. C., 1920. 14 Bisbett- tb,George T. Thecensus and some of its uses.Edinburgh, W. Green &Sons,Limited 1921

a .4401..... 18 WORLDILLITERACY

In the rg)opulationas a-hole illiteracyis likewiseexceedinglysmall.This condition isnot becaw3eq recent improvementsin literacy,but has existedin Ourland foralopg time.Compulsoryeducation datesfrom 1k42J...when itwas provided thateaMi parishmuM have at leastone school. Switzeriand.TheSwiss FederalBureau ofStatisticsstates: In Switzerlandnostatistics existwith regardto the number ofilliteratepersons, owingto the fact thatelementary oducationis compukoryand freeolo cost. On'the other hand,the number ofbetrothedmen andwomen who sign their marriage certificatesNvitha cross is recorded.The numberof suchperson, covering theyears1906to 1910,was:NIales,-15g (0.33perCent);females, 635 (0.46per cent); Out ofatotal of137,408 marriagescontracted.Ofthese Wit- erate, 413menand 55.5women were foreigners. lemajority of theilliterateswere therefore foreigners, bornin foreigncoun- tries, and InostlyItalians.The fewSwiss includedinthe abovef'.;ureare Swiss peopleho havereturned fromforeign countries. In any case, if speaking ofilliterate Swiss,born and hn)ugntupin SNN it/AT- land, the figuresof 0.02whichyoumention, wtd thesourceof whichis not known tous,would henaught in viewof the strictapplication of thefederal lawcon- cerning elementaryinstruct ion. Union of SouthAfrica.By thecensusof May3, i9b2i, thetotal population of6,928,580was21.9per cent EuropeAn; 67.8per cent 1.L4Itu;2.4per centAsiatic; and7.8per centmixed andotherraces. Dataonilliteracyaregiven onlyfor the Bantuin thiscensusof 1921. The marksignaturesat marriagesamongthe Europeansareavail- able foranumber ofyears.'5For theyears 1918 to 1922, inclusive. 130,944persons among the Europeanscontractedmarriage, andof these685,or0.52per cent,signed withamark.In the lastquarter of 1922, theschoolsenrolled323,851 pupils,somethingmorethuin one-fifth theEuropeanpopulation. Thecensusschedule of1918 containedthreequestionsoneduca- tiori aniongEuropeans.The first askedabout abilityto- (1) read and write,(2)to read only, and (3)inabilityto readorwrite.The second askedwhethereitherorboth officiallanguageswerespoken. The thirdaskedthenature pf the instructionbeingreceivedat university,at sçhool,orathome. Thedata securedinresponse to the firstquestionarereported forthe whitepopulation7yearsof ageandoverin urbanand rural arias."'Theyarealso arrangedfor the. 'group10yearsofctgeandoverand comparedwith thecensuses of1904 and1P11.

_ 16 Official Ye:Jbook of the Unionof South Africaand ofBasutoland, BechuanalandProtectorate, and Swaziland. Statist!cs mainlyfor the period1910-1924.No. 7J. E. Holloway,director ofcensus and statistics.Pretoria, 1923. 14 Census of theEuropeanor white races of the Unionof South Africa,1918, Finalreport and supple- mentary tables.Presentedto Parlianfint.Cape Town,1920.

; AREAS OF LEASTILLITERACY' .19

Literacy of white population7yearsofageandeyer, an yearsofageastioverifs , the Union of South44frica

7years of age andover 10years of age and over

Particulars 1918 1918 1911 1904

INP NumberPerNumber Pervs-umber'Per Per cent cent' cent',Numbercent . p- Read and write Din, 97894. 57 ),015,-O6 97. 24 996, 117 96.89 ° 800. 381 i M. 20

Read only 17,301 1. 5 ; 8, 757 . : 84 e 2 .881 10, 1 1. 25 Neither read i nor write ; 2Z 940 1. 99 12, 907 ' 1. 24 21 :Ili 2.34 ; 344889 4. 11 IT rspecifitd _ _ 22. , 18 1. Vi i 7, 136 .68 885 .09 : . I 3,740 I .44

- -+=1

Literacy of totalw-hit'èpopulation, allages

1918 1911 1904 ParticuhLs

I Number Per cent NumberPer cent NumberPer oent =1. . ,

Read and write , . . 1, 091, 978 76. 80 969, 089 1 75.93 Read only 865, 612 76. 61 17, 301 1. 22 17, 489- 1.37 19, 670 1.76 Neither readnor write and infants__ 22, 940 1. 61 287, *. 83 22.55 233, 248 20. 89 Unspecified 22, 418 1. 58 1, 872 .15 8, 276 ! .74 Children under 7 267, 144 18 79 ,

Total 1, 418,060 , .i 1, 276, 242 1,116, 806 .....o

United States.Thepopdlationschei111for thecensusof 1920con- tainedtwo items regardingMiter:111Si;one as towhether theperson enumeratedwasableto readthe otheras towhether hewasableto write.Illiteracy isdefinedasinabilityto write in .J. anylanguage,not necessarily English,regardless of abilityto read.The statisticsrelate to the population 10yearsofageandover.The abstractof rthe illiteracy data" contains detailedfigures both quantitative'and Per- centages, for the Nationas awhole, thedivisions, andthe States.. Theyarearranged by populationclassesnative white,foreign-born white,negro,and other racialgroupssex,variousage groups,and urban and rural.They afford basesforawiderangeof comparisons.

i; Fourteenthcensus of tbe United States.Population: 1920.Illiteracy.(Ft sprint of club&12, vol. 2, Fourteentheensus reports.)Bureau of the Census, Washington,D. C.

1/4tt

4 CHAPTER III

Political Divisionswith IlliteracyRates Between1 O and 50 PerCent

The political divisionshaving illiteracyrates between 10 and50 percentarelisted in Table3,page22, ingroupsof 10per cent range each.. These23 divisionsarepredominantly smallinpopulation. Eight have fewer than1,000,000 inhabitantseach; 10 others have fewer than10,000,000.Fourareoutlyingparts of the United States: 4,of theBritish Empire. Finland, Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, Poland,and Yugoslavia,of the Europeancountries,arenations newly createdorrecreated since the World War.The illiteracyrates of the first four namedare to a considerableextent the result of the policiesof the formerRussian Empire.That of Polandisinherited fromRussia, Austria,and Ger- many.The centralcounties of Poland,formerly theCongress Kingdom, and theeastern counties, all of whichwereunder Russian ,rule, reported in thecensusof 1921 illiteracyratesamongthose 10 yearsofageandoverranging from30 to 71per cent.The city of Warsaw is' excepted.The 4 meridionalcounties which belonged to Austriti report rates from19.4 to 46per cent.The:3 western counties, formerly underGerman rule,were,respectively, Poznan, 3.7percent; Pomorze, 5.2; and Slask Cieszynski,2.5. Rumania,at the close of thewar,received considerable accèssions of territory: Bucovinefrom Austria,Transylvania fromHungary, and Bessarabia fromRussia.The illiteracyrate in Rumania, already prpbably high,seems tohave been raised bytheinclu'sionof thepeoples livink in thesecessions. The illiteracyrateonthe European Continentincreases in general as one goestoward the south andtheeast.Spain, Italy, andBul- garia show comparativelyhighrates.The firsttwoarelong- established nations and fullyresponsible for thestate of education within their borders.Therate for Greece is not given, and whileit is estimatedat considerably inexcessof 50percent,no oneknows withanycertainty what it is. Greek Macedonia andThrace, otherwisecalled NeworNorthern Greece, becameapart of Greece in 1912 afterhaving belongedto Turkey fiir several centuries.Educationwas not common utder the Turkish régime,a very1)trge percentage of the population beingilliterate. 20 BETWEEN 10 AND 50 PER CENT 21

Since 1912somui+ history has been enacted here tidt littleopportunity has been given for the study of it.Macedoniawas abattleground during the World Waraswellasfor Balkanwars,and after the defeat of the Greeks by the Turks in 1922, the exchange of greatmassesof population took place between thetwo countries and toamuch lesser extent between Greece and Bulgaria.Of the million andahalf refugees who fledor weretransferred from Asia Minorto Greece aboutamillioncameto New Greece during the period from 1922 to 1924 and replaced 350,000 Turks transferred to Turkey. * * Saloniki is the metropolil of New Greece, and it hasgrownfriom175,000 in 1922 to about 500,000.1 With suchashifting of populations, the Government of Greececan not beheld responsible for thepresent statusof illiteracy. Theratesfor the three South American countries, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, correspond fairly closelytothose of the southern European section.

Uruguay is listed in Table 3ashaving between30 and 39.9per ' centof illiteracy (inabilitytowrite inanylanguageamong persons 10yearsofageand over).This isanestimate made fro'm different sourcesof information. (Seepage30. The population of these23 political divisions,asshown in column 6, is1 55,828.9'93.To thismustbe added the figures for Memel, 140,000, and the native population of New Guinea, estimatedat 2 00,000, makingea total of 156,168,993,orabout8.6per centof that. of the world.Their landArea is 3,4 10,617squaremiles, about6.6 per centof thtit of the earth, klxcluding uninhabited polarregions. The absolute number of illiteratesfor the political divisionsreport- ingare:Estonia, 101,.672; Hawaii,356,336;Hungary, 1,090,715; New Guinea (Europeans),,304;Alaska,1 0,874; Guam, 2,011;Latvia', 282,0(3;Newfoundland and Labrador,43,392;VirginIslands,

5,281; Cuba, 796,806; Finland, 619,36 7; Lithuania,680,047Poland, 6,581,307; Bulgaria, 1,744,704; Jamaica, 468,742;Colony of the Leeward Islands,44,800; and Spain, 7,446,698; makingatotal of 1 9,954,099.Argentina,Italy,Yugoslavia,Uruguay, Chile, and Rumania, for which the dataarebasedontknreliable indices,must have ahnost19,000,000 and Memel and the native peoplesrof New, Guinea about140,000, making approximately 39,000,000 offpersons 1 0yearsofageandoverthatcan notread and write.

IEducational facilities in Saloniki and Greek MacedoniaRept. from Robert F. Fernald, American $Consul at 8alonik.i, Dec. 10, 1927. a TABLZ 3. Political divisions haPing Per cent an illiteracy rate between 10 and 49.9 per cent Numberpersons of in listed in groupsPer centwhich of 10 per cent range ts2 Political division illiteracy of ; Definition on which the per eent is based thewhich class that to per centapplies thatis ofclass totalpopulation population Total Source of total lation data popu- 3 3 4 _ 6 GroupEstonia witA 10 to 19.9 . . . . per cent illiterate 4. 10.8 ló . . 935, 131 K4. 4 1, 107, 393 28, 1922. . 1 years of age and over, unable to read and write Hawaii ...... 18, 9 13 10 years of over, _ 187, 167 73. 1 2,55, 912 Census of Dec. . . age ige and unable to write in any language Census of 1920. GroupTerritoryHungary wit* of W New to S9.9 Guinea__ per cent illiterate I 1 10.15 717 5 yearAyears of age and over and unable to read of and over, unable to read and write ...... 7, 189, 272 2, 839 SP.90.0 4 7, WO, 143 3, 173. CensusCensus of AprDec. . 31, 1920.4, 1921. Alaska 24. k 10 years of age and over, unable to write . . . . 43, 76A 79. 5 55,038 Census of 1920. GuamArgentina , 3 28 0 21.24.0 fi 10Average years of of conscripts and enlisted age and over, unable toof write age, men, 1913 to 1924 ... Not given. 2, 304. 744 9, 211 89. 3 5. 9 38, 755, 5769, 548,092 13, 275 Censusomcial 1, 1924 of 1920.estimate, Jan Italy ..... ______...... i 21. 17 Over 106 years unable to read 1, 331, 939 83. 5 1, 598, 131 Census of Dec. 1, 1921 NewfoundlandLatvia and Labrador . - 24Z3 90 Over10 years 10 of years of age, unable toto readreadage and write : 188, 18421, 191 81.70. 4 4 267, 330 26, 051 CensusCensus of Apr.June 24,14, 19211920 CubaGroupVirgin Kith Islands 30 to (t.739.9 S ) per cent illiterate 39 0 10 years of age find over, unable to read and over, can not write 2,041, 971 70. 64+ 2, 889,1304 CensusCensus 1919. of Nov.of 1, November, 1917 LithuaniaFinland 32.37.30 8 15 5 10years15 years of age of age and and over, over, can not read can not read or write 2,1, 0.57, 813, 727 460 89.61. 13 4 Z028,3, 344, 971807 CeriusChurch 31,1921. 192 1.registry,of Dec. Sept. 17, UruguayYugoslaviaPoland 35-38 1 11. 8 18 years of years of age and age and over, contracting marriage over, unable to read_ 20, 099, 584 32, 332 73. 9 . 2 n,12, 192, 017, 674 3231,494, 953 CensusCensusEstimate, of Jan. 31, 1921.1921.1920. of Dec.Sept. 30,31, Group with 40 to 49 9 per cent illiterate _ ChileBulgaria 40.44 875 ! 5 years10 years of of age age and over, unable to readand or write over, unable to read._ I: _ . _ _ 3,2, 732, 819, 483 104 78. a. 3,4, K46,753, 971799 Census of Dec.Dec. 15, 31, 1920. 1920. JColony of amLeeward al ca_ Islands I 5047 948 . , 510Any years age, of can notyears read and write of age and over, can not read and write ...... 746,122, 46.5 242 , 100 86. 99 16, 262, 177 KA,ln, 118242 Census of Do. Apr. 24,, 1921. 31, Rumania 0-50 age and over, not knowing how to write _ .; Estimate, Dec. Spain i 42.88 tO years of age and over, not knowing how to read and write_ 16, 805, 848 ! 78. 5 7 21, 389, 842 Census of 1920. Dec. 31, 1920. _ I34 See INotData p. including 30for for TuscanyApplies UnlessReducedMemel only. tootherwise(140,000). tothe European stated, population the date is only.that of the latest organized personsreasons 5 years for including of age and Uruguay over and in included30 to 39.9 in perthe cent40 to group. 49 9 per cent About 200,000 natives not included. census. group. See p. 32. 7 Including4 the Balearic and Canary Islands.

O 24 WORLD ILLITERACY

Estonia.--In Estonia,among persons over 15yearsofage,the censusof 1922 showed5.9per centunabletoreadorwrite;anaddi- tional5.8per centknew only howtoread, makingatotal of11.7per centwhollyorpartly illiterate.'For those10yearsofageand over,the figure is10.8per cent:for 7yearsofageandover,12.66 percent.' Hawaii .The populationof the Territoryof Hawaii issohetero- geneousthat data for illiteracyaregiven by divisionsfor thesexes under 12 racialclassifications.Theratesare:Hawaiian,3per cent; Caucasian Hawaiian,0.6per cent;Asiatic Hawaiian,1.1per cent; Portuguese,18.9per cent;Porto Rican,46.7per cent ;Spanish,31.5 per cent ;other Caucasian,0.8per cent ;Chinese, 21per cent ;Japanese, 20.8per cent.;Korean, 17.3per cent;Filipino,46.7per cent;Negro 14.7 and all other, percent.'The definitionof illiteracy isthat. commonly used in theUnited States. Hungary.The populationof Hungary15yearsofageandover numbers5,536,588,or69.4per centof the 'total of allages.In this age group, 744,903 (13.4percent) could neither readnorwrite.' Persons6yearsofageandovernumber 7,189,272; and1,090,715,or 15.17percent, could neither readnorwrite.Those10yearsofage andover are6,450,683,or80.8per centof the population. Territory of NewGuinea.Theterm"New Guinea"is here applied to theareaof about92,000squaremilesoverwhich theLeague of NationsgaveAu4tra1iaamandate.It consists of thatpartof the island of NewGuinea formerly knownasKaiser Wilhelm'sLand, Bismarck Archipelago,and thetwo most northern of the Solomon IslandsBougainvilleand Buka.The indigenous populationof Papuans and Melanesiansis estimatedatfrom200,000 to 300,000. The totalnonindigenous populationof 3,173was1,288 European, 1,424 Chinese, and the remainder ofother Asiatic races.'

Annusson, lari.Instruction publiqueeuEstonie.Tallinn, 1925. I Aperçu de lademographie d(ts diverspaysdu monde, 1925. 4 Fourteenth Census of the UnitedStates, 1920, bulletin.Population: Hawaii, Bureauof theConsul' Washington, D. C. I Apervu de la demographie dmdiverspays du monde, publits par 1'OD3oe Permanent de PInstitut International de Statistique, 1925. 6 Census of the Commonwealthof A u.straliarApr._111921.Census Bul. No. 8.Territory of New Guinea (mandated area).Prepared by the Commonwealth statistician.Melbourne.

_4 IIETWrEN10 AND 50PER CENT A 25 Illiteracyinthe mandatedareaof New Guinea Can not read: Under 5yearsofage 167 5years andover 7304 English language: Read only 10 Read andwrite 1 247 Foreign languageonly: Read only 12 Read and write 1, 160 Not stated__ *Et 273 Total 3, 173 Alaska.Of the55,036personsin Alaska, one:halfarewhite,48 percentareIndian, andthe other2per centareChinese,Japanese, Negro, and mixedblood.Illiteracydataareavailable forall classes, loyearsofageandover,byrace, sex, andage groups.Therates ur_ for the differentracialgroups are: Native white, 0.5per cent;foreign- born white,3.4per cent;and Indian,56.4per cent. Argentina.TheArgentine Republicconsists ofoneFederal district, 44 Provinces,and10 Territories.Approximately4.5per cent of the population isin theTerritories, anddataonilliteracy forthis smallpart of the peopleweregatheredata censusin 1920.9The number of illiterates (*unableto readorwrite)among'persons 6years ofageandover was 131,961,or42.9per cent.This indexcan not be consideredasrepresentative ofthe entirepopulation, butitseems tobeaccurate for thegroupfor whichtbe datawerecollected. In theatsenceof datagathered forthe entirecountry atanational census,probably thebest indexfor Argentinais inatable giving thepercentage of illiteratesamongthe Tonscripts(men 20yearsof ageandoverrequiredto do military duty)taken into thearmyin theyears1913 to -1924.10Theaverage per centof illiteracyfor the yearscitedwas24.77.That figureis used inTable3,page22. Guam.The population(13,275) of Guamis 92per centChamorro, 3per centFilipino, and2.1per centwhite.The remAinderare Chinese, Japanese,and mixed.Of thepersons10yearsofage.and over,21.8ptr centwerereportedasunableto write, and 16.5percent could neither readnorwrite."Thepercentage of illiterate females (29.6)was morethan doublethat of males(13.3), due mainlyto the indifference of thenativesto the education of girls.Th6percentages

7 10 7per cent. Fourteenth Census ofthe United States,1920, bulletin.Population: Alaska.Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. 9 Ministerio del InteriorAsesoria letrada deTerritorios Nacionales.Censo general de los Territorka Nacionalep RepublicaArgentina, 1920, TomoIy Torso II.Buenos Aires. 1923.

lo In La Vanguardia,Buenos Aires, Aug.1, 1924. . 11 Fourteenthcensus of the United Stateet, 1920, bulletin,eensus of Guam, Bureau of the Census, Wash- ington, D. C.

.; 26 WORLD ILLITERACY

were verymuch higher fortheage groups over 24yearsthan theywere forpersonsunder thatage,owingto the. fact that theolder peopleof Guam hadneverreceived thebenefits ofa systemof public schools. Ita/y.Statistics ofilliteracy forthe entireKingdom takenata . recent regularcensus are not available.Data from thecensusof December1, 1921, have beenpublished forTuscany." ThisProvince hadapopulation of2,765,740,or7per centof that of theKingdom. Outofevery100persons over 6yearsofage,72wereableto read. Thepercent ofmen was 76;ofwomen,68.Theper centof illiteracy, theninabilityto readamong personsover6yearsof ageis28 for o thisoneProvince.In1911 the illiteracyrate for Tuscanywas37.4 per cent,while that forthe Kingdomwas37.6per cent;la.soTuscany maybe consideredasfairly representativeof all Italy. Estimates takenfrom anothersourceare:" In 1872the percentageof illiterateswas68.7per cent; in 1901 itwasreduced to 48.5per cent,in 1C11to 37.6per cent; and althoughnoofficial figuresare yet available, it is estimatedat 23percent in 1922. Doctor Stellausesilliteracy heretomeaninabilitytoreadamong' persons6yearsofageandover. Latvi.a.--Thecensusof June14, 1920, showedthat25.7Der cent of allpersons6yearsofageandovercould, neaerreadnorwrite.'6 Forpersons over 10yearsofagethesame report indicates that 21.17 per centwereunableto readorwrite. The counselorof the Legationof Latviawrites: As to the illiteracyin Latvia,wehave atour disposalno more recent data than those procured bythe firstcensusof the LatvianGovernment in1920. From thatyear we possess the data stating thatthe number ofournationals, olderthan 10years, who could readwasin the fourProvinces ofLatviaasfollows: Vidzeme, 93.71per cent;Kurzeme,89.69per cent; Zemgale, 84.66per cent; Latgale, 50.13 per cent; total, 78.83percent.16 Newfoundland andLabrador.By thecensusof April24,1921, these divisionsof the BritishEmpire haveapopulation of267,330. Dataoneducationaregivenasfollows:"

It La 8cuola in Toscano.Bollettino del R.Provveditorato agliStudi, Firenze.Anno II, N. 10, Ottohre 1925. Is UfficioCentralede Statistics.A anuario statistic° Italiano,Seconda stria, Vol. VII,Anni 1917e 1918. 141 Stella, Antonio,M. D. Someaspects of Italian immigrationto the United States.New York, O. P. Putnam's Sons, 1924. 11 Apervu de ladémographie des diverspays du monde, publiépar l'Oftioe Permanent de l'Institut International deStatistique, 1925. 111References: M.Sku)enieks,,Latvija, ZemeunledsivotaY. 17 Census ofNewfoundland andLabrador, 1921. At.Johns, Newfoundland,1923.

-4" ala BETWEEN10 AND50PER CENT 27

q Educationof populationinNewfoundlandand Labrador

Newfoundland Labrador Education Total 1911 1921 1911 1921 1911 1921

Nunirhetween5and15 years ofage at school_ 40,424 48, 993 N r between 5 and 15not at school 293 298 40, 717 49, 289 J 19, 609 I Numberover 15 at school 11, 703 214 404 19, 8X3 12, 107 Number 0 ' Z 118 0 0 0 2, 116 over 10 years whocan read and write I _' Numberover 10 years who 132,ON 142, 956 2, 009 1, 837 134, 672 144, 792 can not read and I write I -a_ i 72, 808 42, 148 1, 340 1, 244 74, 148 43, 392 I The 1911 dataare from 5years of age and upward. Of the 188,184personsover10yearsofage, 43,392,or23per cent, couldnot read orwrite.Thepercentage is40 in Labrador;22.7per e cent in Newfoundland. Virgin islands(U. S.).The threeprincipalislands St.Thomas, St. Croix, ana St. Johnhavean area of about142squaremiles; and by the censusofNovember1, 1917, theyhadapopulationof 26,051, of which7.4per centwerewhite,-74.gper centnegro, 17.5 per cent mixed, and0.2per cent of otherraces.'8Thepersons under 10years ofage were 4,860,or18.6per cent of the totalpopulation. Statistics of illiteracyweregatheredfor those10yearsofageandover under the definitioncommonlyused inthe UnitedStates andare reported for each islandseparately,the islpdsas agroup,bysexes, by urbanand ruralpopulations,byraces,and forcertainage groups. Of the population10yearsofageandover, numbering21,191,24.9 per cent,or 5,281,wereilliterate.Therate for maleswas23.9per cent; for females, 25.8per cent. Among theracestheywere:White, 11.3per cent;negro, 29.7per cent; and mixed,9.6per cent.The percentage increasedwith eachsucceedingagegroup. Except for the age groups 10 to 14 and15 to 19 itwas ve'ry highamongthenegroes. Cuba.Thereport"of thelatestcensus, 1919, givesliteracydata under the headings"Canread" and"Cannot read" forthepopula- tion 10yearsofageandover.The dataarearrangedbyprovinces, certain age groups, and color,andnativity.Of the2,041,971 inhabitants 10 yearsofageandover, 1,245,165,or61per cent,wereableto read.Of thetotalpopulation,47.6per cent could read. Percent of literacyin Cubaby afti age groups andsex

Both Age Men -- -- ES Women 10-14 15-19 . MI, 4. 53.4 50. 2 66.8 20-24 s 71. 2 68. 0 74. 6 25-29 a 7 72. 9 74. 7 73. 2 30-34 A, 74. 2, 72. 0 35-44 67.0 69. 8 O. 4 45-54 59.5 62. 9 54. 9 65-64 52.8 56. 8 47. 8 66 andover 46.5 49. 1 43. 2 37.2 38. 0 36. 4 15epartnfentkofCommerce,Bureau of theCensus.Census of theVirgin Islands Nov. a theUnitedStates, 1, 1917.Washington,GovernmentPrinting Oaks,1918, 3 Census of the Republicof Cuba,1019.Dinciclims generaldalamigo. Raven. 3319429-3 28 WORLD ILLITERACY

By color and nativity thepercentages for bothsexes are:Native white,62.7percent illiterate; foreign white, 75.3; and colored, including black, mixed, and yellow,53.1. Firdand:-The population is88.7p,Ircent Finnish-speaking, 11per cent Swedish-speaking, and 0.3percentuseother languages.The report of thecensustakenonDecember 31, 1921, gives theextent of education under four categories:2° (1) Persons who havereceived instruction higher than primary; (2) otherpersonsknowing howto read and write; (3) those knowing only howto read; and (4) tho8e not knowing how to read and write. The data under these four classifications for allpersons15yearsof ageandover are asfollows:

Absolute figures and numberperthousand for education in Finland

With education Others thatcan read Can not reador above primary read wid write Can only wrjte Class Total Num- Num- I Num- Num-

NumberberperiNumber . berperNumber berperNumberberper

1,000 1 1,000 1,000 1,000

1 Total log, 163 53 1, 328, 697 646 598, 821 291 20, 546 10 2, 057, 227

Men 53, 220 55 ! 64226 858 272, 174 278 11, 024 11 978,644 55, 943 52 ;, ì..471 636 326, 647 9, 522 Women .=mr011t 303 9 1, 078,583

Finnish _ 73, 810 40 i 1, 1581 092 640 558, 738 309 19, 286 11 1, 809,924

Swedish 32, 675 1 38 ; 166, R54 696 39, 545 165 738 3 239,812 Russian 748. 207 I 2, 293 634 147 40 431 119 3,61C, German__ 1, 787 971 ! 148 76 5 3 1,940

143l 74 I 1, 310 Others ...... , 878 388 201 91 47 1, 93? _ 1 By the definition of illiteracyas"inability-to write inanylanguage, regardless of abilityto read,"illiteracy in Finlandamong persons 15yearsofageandoveris 30.1percent.IncluCiing the370,495 children from10 to 14yearsofage,inclusive, would probably mak& the rate slightly higher. Lithuania.-Statistics of illiteracy for Lithuaniaasreporten 21 by the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Ministry of Financeareunusual in that they showa veryhighpercentage ofpersonsknowing only how to read.Data for the entire populationaredivided into city (places withmorethan 2,000 inhabitants) and eolintry, andaregiven (1) for those knowing howto read and write, and (2) for those knowing only howto read. Asummaryisasfollows: r_Irban and rural illiteracy in Lithuania =11é

Urban Rural I Total a NumberPer cent Number Per cent Number Per cent

Population of allages 934 1 728 037 2, 02% 971 *Knowing how to read and write 415 63.84 940, 406 54. 48 1, 133, 821 55. 88 4 Knowing how to read only 20, 944 6. 91 490, 499 23. 20 421, 392 20.76

hSuomen Tilastellinen Vuosikirja uusi sarja Eabdaskymmenesneljas Vuosikerta, 1926.Helsinki, 1918. . 11 8tatistikos Dlulstinis 1924 metal., Rupegsga., 9Nr. Contr. Statistlkos Blunts, rinansu M Misted*: Kaunas. rik BETWEEN 10AND 50PER CENT 29 L If the definitionof illiteracyis assumedto be "havingnoknowledge of either readingorwriting," theper centof illiteracyfor the total population ofLithuaniabecomes inthe liihtof thesefigures,23.36per cent.If themoreexactingdefinitionof "inability to write inany o language, regardlessof abilityto read" is thecriterion, therate of illiteracymust ,be consideredas44.12per cent.In bothcasesthe °irate iscomparativelyhigh sincechildrenunder10yearsofage are included. (Seepp.4 and 5.)t Thesamekinds ofdataaregiven forchildren7 to 13years,inclusive of bothages.Theysummarizeasfollows:

Urban and ruralilliteracyr! mong children in Lithuania

Urban Rural Total

Cumber Percent Number j Per cent E NumberPer cent

ChiLlren 7to 13years of age, inclusive.... 38.430 O. 502 ; 298, 932 Knowing howto read hnd write _ i 6,201 68. 17 113, 893 1 Knowing how 43. 72 140,094 ; 4&SQ to read only 1,091 ; Z8 33,439 12. 83 s 34, 530 IL 66

Alb By the-twodefinitionsjust.citedilliteracy inthisgroupof children, of whatis ordinarilythecompulsoryschoolages,is either41.56per centor53.11per cent. Disregardingthe215,511 childrenunder5yearsofage as being all illiterate,theper centof illiteracyfor thepopulation5yearsof ageand aover--bythe standard"havingnoknoWledgeof either readingorwriting "is14.3 and bythe standardof "inabilityto owrite inany language" it is37.5per cent.The latterfigure isused in thetable. Disregardingthe275,742 childrcnunder7yearsoffige asbeing all illiterate,theratesare,respectively,11.3per centand35.4per cent for the population7yearsofageandover. Poland.Thereturns for illiteracyin all ofPoland fromthecensus of September30, 1921, have . recently beenmadepublic."Ina population of20,099,584tenyearsofageandover, 6,581,307,or32.8per cept,wereunableto read, and fbranadditional887,055,or4.4per cent, thestatusasto literacywasunknown. The datafor tip entirecountryaregiven byabsolutefigures and percentages for Thesexes,the differentProvinces, andurban and ruralcommunitiesunder theclassifications:Knowing howto read; the degreeof instruCtion,includingprivate,elementary, middleschool, professional, higher, andunknown; illiterates(undbleto read);and knowledgeof readingunknown.Data,arepresented alsofor illiter- acyby fivedifferentage groups.

11 A nnuaire statistique de la RépubliquePolonaise. IVannft, 1926-X.\Tarsal%1927. -30 WORLD ILLITERACY

Uruguay.Nocensusof the country has been taken since 1908. Dataareavailable for the literacythetermisnotdefinedamong personscontracting marriage.Theages are18 andover.Of 16,714 personsin 1920 entering the marriagecontract, 7,374men(88.2per cent) and 7,301women(87.3percent)were1iterate.23Of 15,618 suchpersonsin 1921, 6,971men(89percent) and 6,890women (88.2percent) wet+ literate."Combining the data for the 2years amongthe 32,33.2persons,88.7percentof themenand 87.7per cent of thewomen,with 88.2percent for bothsexes, wereliterate.In thisgroup,representing only 0.2percentof the entire population, illiteracy is, therefore, 11.8percent. In 1921 thereweye130,600 children in public and private elementary schools and about 5,500 adultsweretaking nightcourses.In the .population of 1,494,94, about 1 in 11wasattending school. In 1911, illiteracy (not defined)was49.4percent inatotal population of 1,042,686.Itwas36.2percentin thoseover14yearsofage. ugoslavia .The Legation of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, b. 'andSlovenes.reports art percentageof illiteracytobe between 35 and 38, but does not define the term illiteracy.as used in Yugoslavia, northeagesto which it applies. The American consulatBelgrade reported in 1926:

Schoolsystems in Yugoslavia

(Prepared March 29, 1926) Litery.According to thecensusof 1921, 48.5percent of the population of the Kingdom of schoolage or over canreadorwrite.The percentage of literacy varies greatlyin'the several Provinces,as maybeseenfrom the following table: Percentage of literacy in 1921 Per cent North Serbia 34 South Serbia..___ 16 Montenegro 3:3 Dalmatia _ 50. 5 Veivodina 77. Bosnia and Herzegovinti 20. 6 Croatia and Slavonia 67 Slovenia 86

Average for the Kingdom . _ _ _wmMM.48. 5 The number ofilliterate;is steadily decreasingwittthe extension of educational advantages. Bulgaria.Bythecensusof December 31, 1920, the total popula- tionwas4,846,971, and of theses2,154,945,or44.46percent,were literate k(able to read and write).This includes 495,913 children under 5yearsofage,all considered illiterate. 'The population10 -11el- 1111. yowa e" Anuarlo &Autistic° de lalieptiblicaOriental del Uruguay. Libre XXX., Anna, 1920.Monteedeo. 14 Ibid, LibroXXXI., Alum, 1921. BETWEEN 10AND 50PER CENT 3 1

-yearsofageandovernumbered3,732,483, andof these1,987,779, or52.25per cent,wereliterate. Of the618,575 children%between5 and 9years ofage,inclusive, 167,166,or27.02per cent,wereliterate. Dataareavailable 25for literacyin thetotalpopulatiQnand br sexesfor eachage year to 30 and by5-yearageperiods from30 to 100. (Seep.65 et seq.)

Literacy in Bulgariaby ethnologicalgroups

410 Per cent ofliteracy Group Total Numbero number literates

' 1920 I 1905

, Bulgarians.

3, 447, 657 26, .1 Bulgarian- M ohiunmedans 009, 374 50. 90 : 32. 27 ._ lift, 399 . 3, 369 I , Turks 3.81 ; 2. 20 520, 339 .4. Tartars 45, 225 8.69 , 3. 98 agaoutes 4, 905 SUR i 18.31 7. 75 . _ 3, 663 1, 445 i Tnganes 39. 38 ! 23. 80 9g, 451 . (;reeks_ 5, 917 6.01 1 2.28 42, 074 17, 225 40. 94 Rumanians _ 35. 20 Jews 57, 312 16, 263 I 28. 38' 15. 34 43, 209 i A rnwnians 29, 805 I 68.98 53. 67 Others andnot known 11, 509 I 7, 365 63. 99 54. 28 VA, 4-4 7 1 lb, 059 ¡ 61. 33 44. 33 Tot al -.7_...... 4,S46, 971 2, 154. 44,45 ! 44.46 27.91

Chile .-Thepopulation ofChile,given byProvinces,and classi- fied by literacyandsex,is givenfor thecensusofDecember15, 1920.26 Theliteracydataaredividedinto theclassifications"Can read"tInd "Cannot read."Theyapplyto allages.Out ofa population of3,753,799, thosethat couldnot read numbered1,862,019, or49.7per cent. In theLatin-Anwricancountriesapproximately14.4per cent of the population isunifer5yearsofage.Disregardingthatpercentage of personsin Chile,the illiteracyrate for those5yearsofageandover is40.8'percent. Thecensus report " gives thefollowingtable ofthepercentage of literateswith relationtoage

Percent of literatesin Chile byage grqups sic NI. Years ofage Men WomenTotal 1. Years ofage MenWomen Total

4 0 3 O. 4 . 0 3 25-29 5 70. 5 66. 1 68.3 3 9 4 1 ; 4 0 _ CO 6-7 ,30-34 a.al.as . 69. 2 61.8 65.4 24 1 25 4 24 7;'35-39 8-9 , 67. 9 61.8t 64.8 44 5 45 3 , 44 9 i! 40-44 10-11 63. 9 56.8 60.4 h7 4 58 2.1 67 9 is 65-69 % 12-14 52. 9 47.1 50. 0 ....._ ...... 62 7 64 9 63 8:.85-89 15-19 37. 2 ; 33.8 35.4 66 7 69. 4 t. 68 11100 ot _ 20-24 more _ _ _ _ .. .. 17. 16.0 16. 7 71. 2 , 69. 3 : 70. 2 I! ., u Annuaire statistique duRoyaume de Bulgarie,XVII mink,1925. Sofia,Imprimerie de Ittat, N Sinopsisestadistiea 1926. de la República deChile.Oficina Centralde Estaiitst ica.Santiago de Chile, Agustinas, 1250.1925. a;CensodePoblación dela Republicade Chile,Dec. 15. 1920. OW, . . le 2 WORLD ILLITERACY Jamaica.-6Thepopulationasfound by thecensusof April 24, 1921, was858,118,or193 tothesquaremile.The lowerage groups were: Under 5years,111,653,or13.01percent; 5 to9,inclusive, 120,923,or 14.09percent;and 10 to 15,inclusive, 105,087,or12.25percent. Racially theywere:White, 14,476,or1.7percent;colored,151023, or18.3percent;black, 660,420,or76.9percent;East Indian, 18,610, or2.1percent;Chinese, 3,696,or0.5percent; notstated, 3,693,or 0.5percent. For 1921, the percentageof literacy is 60.9if the. criterion is"ability to read orwrite"; it is 52.16if "ability to readand write" is the standard.The illiteracy rate 47.84 per cent,basedonthe latter standard, is used in thetable." Colony of theLeeward Islands .By the censusof April 24, 1921, the colony hasatotal population of 122,242.Statistics of literacy (can read and write) arebasedonthe total, theageelement being disregarded.29Population and literacydata for the different partsof the colonyare: a

PerCent of literacy in the Leeward Islands

Total Per eent popnla-Literates of t ion literacy =11/10. _ Antigua 28,864 18,S71 65. 4 Eit. Christopher-Nevis 38,214 ; 23,157 1 60. 7 Dominica 37,059 ! 11,737' 31. 6 i 12,120 I 3,907 *32. 2 Montserrat .4 Virgin Islands , 5,02.8 2,307 ; 45. 8

i Total 122,242 ' 59,979 49.06 I I

This brings thepeicentof illiteraq to 50.94.Assuming thatone- seventh of the populationis 5yearsofage orless and that all of these areilliterate, the rate is 42.7 per cent.(Seepp.4 and 5.) Rumania.Statistics for the presentKingdom of Rumania,with its population estimated in 194z) at16,262,177,arelacking.The foliowing tables taken hornarecentstatistical annual 3° offerthe only indicesat presentavailable. Prisoners who entered prison in 1924 inMonania, according to amountof education hadonentPance

A mount of education Men Women Total Having higher education 5, 941 26 5, 967 Knowing how t.1 read and write 26, 023 571 26, 594 Knowing how to read 4, 696 599 5, 295 Witinut education 32, 427 3, 558 35, 985 Total 69, 087 4, 754 73, 841

is The annual general report of Jamaica,together with the departmental reportsfor 1921.Kingston, Government Printing Office, 1932. " Watkins, Frederick Henry.Handbook of the Leeward islands.London, West India Committee, 1924. Annuaire statistique de laRoumanie, 1924.Publiaparle Ministire de l'Industrie et duCommerce. Buouresti, Tipografla Curtii Regale,F. Gobl Flit 1923. BETWEEN15AND 50 PERCENT 33 'a.

Other estbiates indicatethat thepercentage of thoseover10years ofagewhocanneither readnoi writemaybemorethán 50.None indicates less than40. Spain.Carefulstatisticsonilliteracy inSpainweregatheredat thecensusof December,1920, andaresummarized inthe report." As given th6re, the dataare notfairly cortiparableto those of other countries.Theper centof illiteracy,those who couldneither read norwrite, is givenas52.23, but it includesthe populationof tillages. Another authority" gives theper centfor those5yearsofageand over as 46.68. Absolute figures haverecently beenpublished "for the totalpopulation,personsknowing howto read, those knowinghowto write, thosenot knowing kowto read, and undetermined,for bothsexesand fordifterentage groups.Theper centof illiteracycomputed from 'this for those10yearqofageandoveris42.88.(Seepp.64 and 67, et seq.).

Censc, de la poblaciónde Espana segurrelempadronamiento hechoen la PeninsulaeIslas Adyaoentes, Dec. 31, 1920. Tomo II. Ministeriode Trabajo, .Comercioe Industria.Madrid, 1924. 32 Aperçu de la Demographic des DiversPays du Monde,1925. 31 Anuario Estadisticode Espana, ArloXI, 1924-25.Ministerio de Trabajo,Comercioe Industria. Madrid, 1928.

.41110,

ti.

4fi

a CHAPTER IV

Political Divisions with PopulationoverHalf Illiterate The political divisions thatreportanilliteracyrateofmorethan 50percentarenamed in Table4,page36.The immediately striking feature of thisgroupof 18 countries is the immensepopulation under consideration, approximately618,000,000,ascompared with the45 countries havingrates under 50per centand their population of some468,000,000.With the exception of the Unionof Soviet Repub- lics, theyareinor nearthe Torrid Zone.Their peoplesarelargely indigenous,or¡tithe American divisions,mixed southern European and indigenous.The northern andwestern Epropean population makesuponlyasmallper centof the total. The population of thesepolitical divisionsasshown in column6 of Table 4 is611,495,465.To thismust be added the abòriginal and othergroups notincluded in thereportsonilliteracyasfollows:

Aboriginals in Colombia (154,42S British Guiana (9,700);certain sections and elements of Mexico(llig,412);"non-Christian" peoples and those of foreign birth in thePhilippines (995,289); aboriginalsin Venezuela (estimatedat 350,000); peoples in India for whichthe datawerenot gathered (2,887,249); and Asiaticsandpersonsof mixed blood in the Union of SouthAfrica (812,706); total,6,341,784. This addedto the total of'column6 givesapopulation of617,837,24*9, oi33.9per centof the population of the world.Theirarea,without the Union of South Africa(472,347squaremiles) whichwasincluded ip Table 2,page10, is 16,433,446squaremiles,or31.6per centof the areaof the earth, excluding uninhabitedpolar regions. If the actual number of illiteratesis Computed, the figuresrun intoastartling number of millions.Theyare:Ceylon, 2,317,530; Colombia, 3,637,552; British Guiana,169,811; British Malaya (urban areasonly), 451,759; Mexico, (the FederalDistrict and the territories not included), 8,208,454; Philippine Islands ("non-Christians"and foreignersnot included), 3,242,627; Porto Rico,497,089; the Soviet _Union(inEurope),45,534,011,Nicarngua,370,038; .Portugal, 3,673,209; Venezuela(6States only),369,171; Brazil, 18,549,085; Dominican Republic,363,265; Guatemala,1,375,818; Dutch East Indies,27,§24;805;Egypt, 9,950,755; India,207,966,631; and the Union of South Africa(Bantu), 4,173,485; makingatotal° of 338,775,095. -4ao. 34 POPULATION OVERHALF ILLITERATE 35

110 To this shouldbe added about31,225,000 illiterates estimatedt6 be in the rural andurban sections ofBritish Malaya;in the Soviet Union outside of Europe;in the Statesof Venezuelanot yet reported bn; the aboriginals in Colombia, BritishGuiana, andVenezuela; the "non-Christian" peoplesand those offoreign birth inthe Philip:, pines; Asiatics andpersonsof mixed bloodin the Unionof South Africa; and the peoplesin India and Mexicofor which datawere not given.This makesatotal of approximately370,0(0,000 ofpersons 10yearsofageandoverthatcannot read and write. The indices givenin column2 of Table4,page36, do not in several casescorrespondto the grouping.For example,Ceylon, withan index of60.1per cent,is placed in thelist of politicaldivisionswith percent'ages of illiteracy rangingfrom 50to 59.9.In generalthe attempt is toarrangethegroupsaccordingto the criteria of illiteracy, .,as"persons 10yearsofageandoverthatcan notwrite inanyIan- guage."The index forCeylon appliestopersons5yearsofageand overthatcannot read and writeashort letter.If those between 5 and 10yearsofage areexcluded, therate for Ceylon will belowered at least 2or3per cent.The indices forColombia, BritishMalay, and Mexicoapplyto allages.Excluding thoseunder10yearswill reduce therates to something less than60per cent.For thesame reasonsNicaragua,Venezuela, andBrazilareplaced in thegroup below that whichthe given indexwould indicate.The figure given for Russia,12.3percent, obtained from thearmyreCruits,isun- doubtedly farbelow thetrue`one.Other dataquoted in thesketch for thatcountry indicateat least 50per centilliteracyamong persons 10yearsofageandover. Those divisionsreportingrates slightly above90per centare placed in the90 to 100per cent group.The inclusionof the lower ages., as wehaveseen,makes littledifference in thepercentage if therate issohigh. (Seepages4 and 5.)

Or TABLE 4. Political divisions having an illiteracy rate between 50 and 100 per cent, listed in groups of 10 per cent range Per cent Numberpersons of in Per oentwhich I Political division Illiteracy of Definition on which the per oent is based the,classwhich that to per centapplies thatis of class totalpopulation population Total Source of total population data '- - Group with 50 to 59.9 per cent Ceylon 1 illiterate: 60 1 5 years of age and over, can not read and write a 3 short letter 3, 855, 524 4 85. 76 4, 504, 549 Census of Mar. 18, 1921. 7 ColombiaPhilippineBritish Guiana Islands exico tish Malaya ...... _ 81.63. 62.950.52. 8 218 Aik5Cliristian Allyears age., of agecan Filipino, andnot readover, 10Filipino and unableyears write dialect.of to agewriteages, ages,and over, cancan not can not read any not read and write a short letter read and write 4 13, 177, 368I 6, 381, 261 5, 696, 649 729,266, 713960 100. 0 68.89.22. 476 1 4 13, In, 3686I 5,9, 696,319, 649021 3, 358, 054 297,691 CensusCensusCensus of of of Nov. Dec.Apr. Oct. 30, 24,31,14, 1921.1921. 1918.1918. Do. 55. 0 o 904, 423 69. 5 1, 299, 809 Group with 60 to 69.9- per cent illiterate: PortoBrazilUnion Rico of Soviet Republics_ _ 72.7112. 227 3 5 Armyyears10 years ofrecruits, ageof age and 1924and over,read over, and can and 1925-21 not write. read years and write unable to write of age and over, can not Not given25, 772, 638, 119 442 100. 0 85. 1 145, 906, 62430, 635, 605 638, 119 Census ofof of 1920.Sept. December, 1, 1926. 1921.1920. PortugalNicaragua $.72 1 67 66 5 AllyearsAll of age and over, unable to readages, can not read and write and write 5, 511,428, 878859 89.19. 9 1 7 2,6, 032,672, 911600 , EstimatedCensus of Dec.frOmJan. 1, census 1920. Group with 8070 toto 89.979.9 per cent illiterate: VenezuelaDominican Republic per cent illiterate: 70 0 13 years of age and over, unable toages, can not read and write read 1, 518,584, 497 227 79.57. 90 2, 004, 900 894, 665 Census of July 6, 1920.of Jan. 31, 1926. Group with 90 to 100 per cent illiterate: DutchGuatemala_ East India] .. ... ______86. 82 94 8 7 years15 years of ageof age and and over, over, can can not not read read and write and write ..... _ 28,10, 144, 923 . 57. 3 49, 350, 834 Census of of Aug. November, 28, 1921.1920. 3 NotUnionIndiaEgypt including of SouthUnless 154,428 Africa otherwise Indians whosestated, intellectualthe date Ls developmentthat of the latest is not organized census. 909092. 3 50 - - - 5Any years10 years age, of canageof age andnot and readover, over, and can canwrite not not read read and and write write a considered. short letter 228, 4, 697,94e,814, 061813620 ' 71. 7 100. 0 85. 2 4 316, 055, 23112, 718, 2554, 697, 813 CensusCensus ofof MayMar.Max. 18,3, 7, 1921. 1917.1921. s/6 IExclusiveNot Not including including of NotIndians,AppliesData 979,8602,887,249 including for about only6 persons States for 62,338about 325,000.to whomthe only,it 9,700 nativethepersons the aboutFederal aborigines. data Bantu of one-fifth wereforeign District, race; not birthoffor obtained. Baja the Europeans, and totalCslifornia, 932,953 population; see so-called Table 2, "non-Christian" p. 10. about 55,000 Indians not included. and Quintana Roo, and probably the foreign peoples. element. Total not included, 1,157,412. POIATLATIONOVER HALF ILLITERATE 1 37 Ceylon.The total populationby thecensusof March18, 1921, was4,504,549persons,of whom Low-country Sinlialesewere42.8 percent; Kandyan Sinhalese, 24.2percent; Ceylon and Indian Tamils, 24.9per cent;Ceylon and Indian Moors,6.3percent; Euro-, peans,0.2percent; Burghers and Eurasians, 0.7per cent;and other races,0.9percent. Careful statisticsonliteracy and Englishliteracyweregathered for allpersons5yetirsofageandoverandarereported I in detail* byraces,religions, thesexes,and certainage groups.Considerable pertinent discussion accompaniesthe tables. Thetest of literacywasfixedasthe "abilityto read and writea short letter," andthe edumeratorsweregivenanexample of about theamount of ability required.Theywerenot to consider "literate,"personswho could only sign theirnames.

Literacy and English literacyin Ceylon

Ceylon 1911 i 1921 : Per cent

Population: Men 41 2, 175, 030 Ad& 812 Women 1, 931, 320 2, /It 793

tal 4, 106 350 14, 498, 605 OR Literates:*

Men _ 878, 766 I 1, 156, 119 , Women 48. 6 204, 062, 381,475 1& 0 Total 1, 082, 828 1, 537, 594 34. 2 English literates: Men 70, 862 1 Women 107, 296 4. 6 - 23, 781 ' 37, 213 L 8 Total ...... 94, 643 144, 509 3. 2 !

I Europeans, 8,118.

When from the abovedata the childrenunder 5yearsofageaie excluded (numbering643,481), thepercentages, including those for thetwo previouscensuses) are assham in the tablehere given.

Literacy and English literacyin Ceylon, excluding-children under 5yearsofag

1001 1911 1921

Literates: Men 42. 0 ! 47. 2 be. 3 Women & 5 12. 5 21 2 Bothsexes 26. 4 31. 0 English literates: 39. 9 Men a.3. 7 3. 8 - & 2 Women 1. 4 1. 5 2. 1 Bothsexes ...... 4-- 2.6 1 7 8. 7

I Census publications, Ceylon,1921.Vol. I, Pts. I andII.Reportonthe Census of Ceylon,1921. L. J. 13. Turner.Colombo, Ceylon,1923. Pr- 38 WORLDILLITERACY

Thereportshows 1,218,325 childrenunder 10yearsofage. Colombia.-Thecensusof October14, 1918, gives the population as5,696,694, exclusive of 158,428 Indians.Of this population,excluding the Indians,3,637552,or63.8percent,2 could neither read norwrite.The following table istaken from the latestcensus report.' Literacy of population of Colombia,exclusive of Indians

Men Women Total

. . .

Number Pe- cent Number Peicent Number I Per cent

. -

Canread and writs S4'"). 313 32.58 791.s07 2s.44 1, (4i7,120 i 30.43

Can read hutnot writs,..... _ ...... 44, 64S 1.73 64. 150 2. 32 10\ 79s , 2. 04 _ ! Can neither readnur write_ _._ _ . 1,709. 765 63.71 1,927, 767 69. 24 ; 3 637, 552 : 67_ 53 Unspecilleil 119 652_ 163. f)27 ...._ _ ... 313. 179... . pi., gm AP OM. _

Thesame reportgives the number of children under10yearsofage as1,614,248,or2S.33percent, and thoseunder5as830,082,or14.5 percent.Assuming all under5 to be illiterate, the percentage of illiteracyamongthose 5yearsofageandoveris 57.6percent. British Guiana.-Thetotal population by thecensusof April 24, 1921,was297,691, not counting about9,700 aborigines.Thepopu-

lation consists of Eurorieans,1.11percent;Portuguese, 3.0Sper cent; East Indians, 41.97pei. cent; Chinese, 0.91percent;Blacks and Africans, 39.36percent mixed, 10.28per cent;aborigines, 3.07per cent; not stated, 0.22percent.Of thepersons5yearsofageand over,132,240,or49.5percent,werereturnedasabletoread and 127,880,or47.9per cent, asabletowrite.4The data arranged for eachsexare:Can read: Men,67,195,or40.45 *percent; women,65,045,or49.63percent.Can write: Men,65,355,or48.09 percent;women,62,525,or47.7percent.. BritishMalaya.-tritishMalaya includesthe Colony ofthe Straits Settlements; theFederated Malay States of Perak,.Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang; andthe Unfederated States of Jahore, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, andTrengannu in the Malay Peninsula) and of arunei in the Islandof Borneo.The total population, by the censusof April 24, 1921,wa!3,358,054,or59.32persquafe pile, dis- tributedasfollows: Straits Settlements,883,769; Federated Malay States, 1,324,890; Unfederated Malay.Staes, 1,149,395.Racially theywereMalay, 49.2percent; Chinese, 35percent; Indian, 14per cent; Euwpean, 0.45percent; Eurasian, 0.4percent;and others, 0.9percent.Males greatly outnumber the females,the ratio being 1,000 to 628.

I Aperçu de la dtmographie des diverspaysdu monde, 1925. s Censo de población de la Repúblies de Colombia levantado el14 de Octubre de 1918, etc.Alberto Schleisinger, Director General de Estadistica.Bogotft, 1924. 4 4 Bayley, Sydney H. British Guiana.Reportonthe results of the census of the population. 162 Georgetown, Demerara, 1922. 4 POPULATIONOVER HALFILLITERATE 39 At the1921censusthe StraitsSettlements,the FederatedMalay States:andJahore andKelantancollectedand compiledliteracy data for thelargertowns butnot for the ruralareas.The otherfour governments didnot include intheircensus an inquiryonliteracy. The dataasreported 5summarizeasfollows: Literacy in the largertowns of the.Straits Settlements,the FederatedMa/ay States, and Jahoreand Kelantan

, , Division Number 1 Percent Not , examinedLiterateIlliterate of 'returned!illiteracy . . . 111.1. Straits Settlements !,04, 09r) 1s1, 070 Federated MalayStates.... 314. 965 i 8, 060 i 63. 4 190, !)06 SI. R20 1o3, 881 4, 805 Unfederated T alayStates _ 55. 9 ...... 4s. 525 1!), 064 32. 913 . 548 68.6 Total 743, 126 . 277. 954 451, 759 13,413 61.9 ; These percentages applyto thepopulationof allagesin the groups examined. Thetest of literacywasthesame as that usedin India,tabilitypa writeashortlettertoafriendandreadthe auswer."Of the totalpopulation,341,631,or 10.17per cent,are under5yearsofage,and947,545areunder15. Briefly, thestatus oT literacywas determined for22.1per cent, all urban,of thetotal population,and theindexof iiiiteraAy,61.91 per centt appliesto all agesin thaturbangroup.If allthoseunder. (aboa10.17 per cent)areconsideredilliterate,therate forpersons 5);earsofage andoveris57.6per cent.It isundoubtedlyhigherin the ruralpopulation. Practicallyall theEuropeansover 15yearsofage were literate, and thesame applied to the Eurasians,except inMalacca,where there isalarge settlementofPortugueseEurasians,mostlyfisher- men,the majorityof whomwereilliterate.Only45per cent of the Eurasiansin the town of Malaccacouldread andwrite,compared with74per cent in Singaporeand70per cent in Penang. the other Among racesthemost strikingfeaturewasthe highpercentage of literacyamongtheJapanese,both maleandfemale. Mexico .Thetotalpopulationof14,334,780,asdeterminedby thecensusofNovember30, 1921, is29.16per cent nativeIndians;' 59.33per cent mixed; 9.8per cent white;1per cent otherraces; 0.71 and per cent foreignerswithoutdistinationofrace.The of number illiteratespersonsthatcan not read andwrite, ofallageshas beenestimatedat 8,208,454,out of the 13,177,368population;7the The Censusof BritishMalays,1921. By J. E.Nathan,superintendentof the1921 'Malays.London,1922. oensus, British Estsdisticanacional.Revista quincenal.Organo delDepartmentode laEstadistics AñoII, núniero42.Oct. 31,1926. Naolonal. Boletin dela 8ecretariade EduesanPública. Tomo V, No.3, Mano.Publicacionesde laflews- tazio deeducacián pública.Metioo, D.F. 1926. 40 WORLDILLITERACY territories ofBajaCalifornia, andQuintana Roo,and theFederal District (allhavingapopulation of 979,860),and probablythe foreign element, notbeing included.This gives 62.2 per cent illiteracy. PhilippineIslands.By thecensusofDecember,1918,the total population of 10,314,310is reportedasdivided raciallyinto 98.9 percentbrown; 0.5percentyellow; 0.4percenthalf-breed; 0.1per centwhite; and 0.1percentnegro.' Thecensusgives the percentageof literacyas49.2.It classesas literate the ChristianFilipino population10yearsofageandover whocanreadanyof theFilipino dialects.These number 3,138,634, or49.2percentof the.total nativeChristianpopulation 10yearsof ageandover,which is 6,381,261. elites include t ose w o canreadorwriteEnglishor Spanish henumber thatcanwrite Spanishis 664,822;those that scanreadSpanish, 879,811.Approximately 25percentof the people whocanread Spanish cannotwrite it.Assuming this percentage to be generalin theislands, the percentageshownasliterate under the Philippineclassificationshould bereduced about 25 percent tomake it comparablewith theclassification of"ability towrite inany language"usedonthe mainlandof theUnited States. From thedataareomitted the 62,336 personsof foreignbirth and the so-called"non-Christian"peoplesnumbering 932,953.No records ofliteracyamongthesegroups appear;so areally accurate figure is notobtainable.fromthe report. The reportof theWood-Forbesspecialmission to thePhilippine, of October8, 1921,statesthe degreeof literacy tobe about 37per cent. PortoRico.Thepopulation.of 1,299,809 is 73percentwhite, 3.8 percent negro,ahd 23.2percentmulatto.Illiteracy statistics for eachracialgroup aregiven indetail forthesexes,variousage groups,and themunicipalittes.9The definitionof illiteracyis that usedonthemainla4d of theUnited States.The population 10 years ofageandover was904,423,and of these,497,089,or55percent, wereilliterate.Amongthe whitesthe rate is 53.1 percent;among thenegroes,60.8percent;andamongthe mulattoes,60percent. Union ofSocialie SovietRepublics.Oneauthority '° offersthe following: The 1920 census gavethefollowing data inregard to theliteracy of the population of theSoviet Union.Forevery1,000 pules,617wereliterate; 336 women 416. . Compiled andpublished by I Census ofthe PhilippineIslands.Vol. II.,Population andmortality. Census Office ofPhilippineIslands.Manila, 1921. Rico. Bureau ofthe FourteenthCensus of theUnited States,1920.Bulletin.Population: Porto Census, Washington,D. C. edited by LouisSegal and A.At_ ts Commercialyearbook of thqSovietUpton, 1925.Compiled and Ban0talov. London, GeorgeAllen & Unwin(Ltd.), 1925. POPULATIONOVERHILFILLITERATE - 41 out ofevery 1,000wereliterate; whiletheaverage numberper 1,000 of the total populationwas465.But during-the interveningperiod illiteracyhas been gradually reducedby the variouscampaigns carriedout for thatpurpose. Anotherauthority "gives thefollowing table:

Literacy data forRussia in Europe1---Aug tat 28, 1920

Men Women

Ages Not Not I knowing Population I percentPopulation knowing how to readi howto readPeroent or write or write

5-14years 12, 028, 547 '7, 718,514 84. 17 I 12, 263, 400 8, 854, 1 11 72.20 15-24years _ 5, 218, 324 1, 387, 785 26. 21 ' 8, 816, 254 4, 739, 563 , 53.76 25-59 years...... O ...... 111. a 12, 290, 910 4, 908, 611 39.94 1 16, 135, 929 12, 376, 575 76. 70 80 yearsor over 2, 882, 762 I 2, 156, 532 Age unknown 74. 81 3, 586, 182 3, 303, 282 92.63 59, 926 50, 744 84. 68 65, 295 5s, 294 89.28

Total qp a- a a... 32, 480, 469 . 16, 202, 188 49.88 40, 847, 060 29,331, 825 7L 81 .5 I Not comprisingthegovernments of Volynie,Zaporojsk, and following districts: Podolsk,aswellas different parts of the (1) Thegovernment of Vitebsk,Drissensky, andPolottki; (2) Thegovernment of Tambov, Tambovsky,Borrissoglebsky,Kirsanovsky, andOumansky; (3) The chouck, Alexandriisky, government of Krement- Tcherkassky, andthe districtof Krementchouck,entirely; (4) Thegovernment of Poltava, Koleliaksk(rural population),Oodiatchsk,Konstantinogradsk,and Siriatinsk; ernment of Odessa, the districtPervormaisky. (5) Thegov-

bythese data,45,534,011,or62.09per cent, out of 73,327,529per- sons5yearsofageandovercould neitherreadnorwrite in1920. The populationof Russiain Europeis givenas 82,a27,834;sothis index appliesto 88.5per centof the tot#1. Literacy inRussia in1920, by divisions

Men Women Total

peen Russia ns Caucasia 42. 2 22. 5 /MO Western Siberia 85. 7 21. 5 2S. 1 30. 7 l& 4 21.8 _ Total * e ea.** O...... 0 *..40,111 a O...... Zio .... a 40. 9 22.4 31.9

-1..1.IIIMII./..M0 1Poradnik Likvidatora Nepismennostita Malopismennosti.TshetverteponovleneI vipravlene vidanya. VidannyaOfltsiyne.Derthavne vidanitstvoUkrainy, 1925.

'ihepopulationof Ukraineis estimatedat 26,965,144,with'48.8 per(cent (4,001,921) ofthose18 to 39yearsofage asilliterates. Acensusof theentire Unionof SovietSocialistRepublicswastaken onDecember27, 1926, butthe figuresonMliteracyhavenot yet been madepublic.Some dataof significancehave beenpresented ina current yearbook."ThepopulatiGn ofthe entireUnionwas 145,906,624, includinganurbanpopulation of25,760,879.Themen numbered70,217,000;women, 75,689,000. Voroshilovreportedthat12.4per centof theconscripts drawnfor thearmyin 1925wereilliterate,ascomparedwith19.4per cent in II Apercu de ladémographie desdiverspays du monde, 1925, 11Statisticbeskii8pravochnik V. 8. 8. R.,1927.BentralnoyeStatisticheekoyeUptavlenle U.ElyS. R. hdanie TBBY,Moskva 11 B.Vusovskii, 2. 41*

- - 42 WORLD ILLITERACY

1924.All illiterate recruitsaretaught to read and wrtte duringtheir .firstyearof service." Brazil.Thecensusof September 1, 1920, showed ápopulation of 30,635,605, of whom 23,142,248,or75.5percent, could neither readnorwrite.Dataareavailable for the number andpercent of illiterates for bothsexesand for each State." The population under 15yearsofagenumbered13,078,323, and of these, 11,740,533 (8g.9percent)wereilliterate.If illiteracy for the nation is computedon abasis of those15yearsofageandover, it is 64.9percent. The population under 5yearsofageis4,593,163.Considering all _these to be illiterate, thepercentage of illiteracy for all 5years*of' ageandoveris 71.2percent. Nicaragua.Thereport of thecensusof 1920 15.gives the following data: Literacy data for Nicaragua

Number ofper- Per cent Sons

40.

! Total population 838, 119.... .1. ow .1

Know how to read and write I 176, 921 ! 27.73

Do not know bow to read and write 481, 198 ! 72. 27

Persons 10years of age orless 169, 510 of age Per cent of illiterates among those over 10years I 40.494

The figuresareplainly inconsistent.If the entire number of those knowing howtore.ad and write is, creditedto the populationover 10yearsof ageconsidering all 10years orlessto be illiterate illiteracy is 62.3percent.Assuming one-seventh of the population to be 5yearsofageand under and all illiterate, thepe.reentageamong those 5yearsofageandoveris 67.6.(Seepp.4 and 5.) Portugal.Accordingto thecensusof December1, 1920, the total population, including the 411,014 inthéAzoresand Madeira,was 6,032,991.The population 5yearsofageandovernumbered 5,428,859 and of these 3,673,209,or67.66percent, could neither read norwrite.'Another authority reports 1,838,419 illiteratemen(64.4 percent) and 2,438,992 illiteratewomen(76.7percent), with the.rate for the total populationas70.9 peecent."Thetwo areportsare consistent.The lormer has excluded and the latter included the 604,132 children under 5yearsoffide.Bothareatvariance with the data .,..--... u Commercial Handbook of the U. 8. S. R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) for 1927.Published by the Soviet Union Information Bureau, Washington, D. C. uDiario (Alicia]; Quints-tetra 4.4th Fevereiro de 1928.p. 2816.Rio de Janeiro. u Republica de Nicaragua, Censo general de 1920.Tipografia Nacional, Managua. s.Aperçu de la demographic' des divers pays du monde, 1925. 17 Statesman's Year-Book, 1925. POPULATION OVER HALFILLITERATE 43

presented by the director generalof statistics in hisreportonkluca- tion.'8 mir Inadetailed table of comparisonsfor theyears1890, 1900, 1911, and 1920, he gives the percentages -of illiteracyamong menandwomen and the total for bothsexesforpersons over7yearsofagein each Province butnot in the islands.The figures for1920are:Men, 46.4,percent;woriApn, 62.1 per cent; and for bothsexes,54.6per cent. The director doesnot define illiteracy, but the lower figure leadsone to believe that it is merely "inerbilitytoread.", , Venezuela.-An organizedcensus wastaken January31 to February 3, 1926.Information about the degree ofinstructionwasgathered under the headings: Know howtorea"dand write; know howto read butnot write; know how neithertoreadnorwrite.The data for the six States of Anzoategui,Xpurt,Aragua, Bolivar, Carabobo, and Cojedesareavailable by totals and districtsfor the sexes.")

Literacy data for 6 States of Venezuela

. Can read and Can read but . Cau neither write not write readnorwrite Not stated

state I Total MenWomen: Men 1Women.MenWomen MenWomen;

A . nzoategui 9,26710, 183 437 436 44, 04944, 791 2, 235 2,396 : 113,794 Apure 4,365 4, 030 221 255 16, 2,46 15, 911 915 1, 050; 42, 993 Aragua 15,41714, 826 814 1, 02:3 . 34, 594 38, 424 1, 275 1, 665 106,038

Bolivar 13,97414, 127 1 499 590 21, 200 21, 464 1, 781 1, 592 ; 75,227 Carabobo 20,93021, 840i 843 1, 231'45, 89651, 192 Z 419 2 853 J 147, 204 Cojedes 3,388 3, 448 210 262 i 18, 240 19, 164 IS, 641 18, 799 82,152 cm., Total 67,34168, 454 3, 024 3, 797180, 225188, 946 I27, 266 28, 355 ; 567,408

- - -111I

Disregarding55,621 for whom literacy dataarenotgiven,out ofa tbtal of 511,787persons,369,171,or72.1per cent, canneither reainor write;6,821,or1.4 per'cent,canread butnot write;and 135,791,or 26.5per cent, canread and unite.An indigenous population of about 55,000 is not included in these figures. About one-fifth (21.22percent) of the population of the Republicj wasin theseStates in 1920,sotheymaybe consideredasfairlyregmb. resentative. Dominican Republic.-Underthe heading "grade of instruction" data gatheredat the first nationalcensustaken in July of 1920are reported 2° byProvinces for those who (1)canread, (2)cannot read,

Is1n8truogopublics.Ititublica Portugnesa. Ministeer)dos Finanças.Direoglio Gera' de Eststlatios- LaRepartivio.Dodos estatisticos referentesaosannoslectivos de 1919-20e1920-21.Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional,1925. st Nuintocensonacional de los Estados Unidosde Venezuela decretado el15 de Agosto de 1925,por e General Juan VicenteGomel, Presidente de la Republicayktvantado los dias 31 deenero y 1, 2, y 3de febrero de 1926. Tomoprimero. le Primercenso nacional, W20, Republica Dominicans, Santo Domingo. .33194---29--4 44 WORLD ILLITERACr

and (3) minors. The total populati9nwas894,665, of whom 155,229, or17.35percent,canread; 363265,or40.6percent,cannot read; and 376,171,or42.05percent,areminors..The minorgroup appar- ently includes those under13yearsofage.Since the data relative to ability to readamongthe minorsarenot given, the conclusion is that forpersons13yearsofageandoverthe illiteracyrate is 70per cent. Guatemala.-Illiteracy dataweregatheredatthecensusof August 28, 1921, andarereported somewhat in detail.2'

Illiteracy in Guatemala,1921 ...110 , Male Female Total

Population in 1921 991, 896 1, 013, 004 Z 004, 900 Illiteratesover 7 years of age 668, 081 709, 737 1, 375, 818 Illiterates under 7years of age 212, 923 207, 309 420, 232

Total illiterates 879, 004 917, 046 1, 796, 050

Literatesover 7 years of age 112, 733 95, 677 208, 409 Literates under 7years of age 228 213 441

Total literates 112 960 95, 890 208, 850

Illiteracy in Guatemala in 1895and 1921 compared a

0116

0 1893 1921

0Ot ...INIINF.11111111.101.1 .d . Total population of the Republic 2, 004, 900 Population, excluding children under7 years A . 1, 092, 178 1, 584, 668 ,Illiteratesover7years .1 4 967, Q54 1, 375, 818 Percentage ot illiteratesover 7 years I 88. 63 86.82 Peroentage of decrease in illitgracy 1. 81

t 1 .4 Dutch East Indies.-Thesepossessions compriseJava and Maduro, Sumitra, Borngo, MoluccaIslands, CelebesIsland, Timor,Riau- \Lingga Archipelagoes, andpart of New Guinea,an areaof 733,642 squaremiles. By thecensusof 1920 the totalpopulationwas computed 22as49,350,834.. Of these, 97.8perrent,or48,304,620,are natives; 1.8percent,or876,506, fordign Asiatics; and0.4per cent, or169,708, Europeans.In 1920, about7percent (825,636) of the 11,867400native childrenwe'reattending school. Theforeign Asiatics had in school8.2percent (12,957) of their158,000 children; the Europeans, 87.4percent (28,571) of 32,700 children. Astoliterracy(abilitytoread and write)and knowledgeof the Dutch language the data(forpersons over15yearsof age)are sum- mitrizedasfollows:

11 Censo de polilacion de la República,levantado el 28 de Agosto de1921. n Statistisch Jaarovertichtvan Nederlandisch-Indie, vervolgvan: Jaarcyfersvoor1;tKoninkrijk der Nederlanden (Kolonien),,Jaargang1925. POPULATION OVER HALF ILLITERATE 45

Literacyand Dutch literacy awing persons over15yearsofagein the Dutch East

Europeans Natives :Foreign Asiatics

MenWomen Men:WomenMen Women

Per centof literacy in the population 84. 1 78. 88 5. 91 0. 96 32. 86 7. 01

' ; Per cent ofpopulation knowing Dutch I 79 82 74. 80 20 ; .05 1. 38 .sa Per cent ofliterates knowing Dutch i 94.91 g4. 84 3. 44 5. 10 ; 4. 19 12. 11 i

For the total populationthe following table is presented: Illiteracy in the totalpopulation in the Dutch East Indies

a. Male Female

2 Ages Can not Crnnot Total Total or ' Per cent number reador Per cent number read I ars'' write write

, 10,074,411 9, 851, 397 95. 8 ; 9, 078, 722 8, 982, 215 98. 94 0 to 14 years I 15 years and over...... 13, 406, 858 12, 154, 942 90. 68 14, 738, 065 14, 517, 947 ! 98. 51

I 98. 67 Total._ . 23, 4811 269 21, 806, 339 92. 87 23, 816, 787 23, 500, 162

Total population used in thecomputation_____a a aa e a a aaa.S alaaa 11., 47, 289, 056 Illiterates, both sexed______amma aaaaaa aaOaaaMlaaa a a Mr a a a a45, 306, 501 Per cent of illiteracy, all ages 95. 7

Per cent of illiteracy, 15yearsofageandover_ Imm am ow. a. .1.. .1. .111.0 Os __ _ e a 94. 8

Per cent of illiteracy, 'Under 15 yearsofage___ _ dam. O. .10MI, alba Mir a ND=, IM ..Mo aim a a a a ab 97. 2 Egypt. Acensusof Egyptwastaken in the spring of 1927, butte resultsarenot yetpublislied. -Dataarereported 23 for theenum a- tion of March 7, 1917.thetotal population bysexesfor the ee sections of the kingdomwas: e Population of Egypt in 1917

Section 1 Men Women Total

dion.MMIN. Gouvernorats 741,053 696, 414 1, 436,467 Basse-Egypt 3, 019, 790 3. 075. 126 6, 094, 916 llaute-Egypt 2, 608, 674 2, 578, 198 5, 186, 872

Tot al 6, 369, 517 6* 3481 12, 718, 285

The division of the populationaccordingtodegree ofstruction , for all those 5yearsofageandover was: . '34

Illiteracyamong persons5yearsofageandoverin Egy

Literates linters Under 8 Section aaft-rm- yearsand Mon Women I Men omen unknown

495, 343 233, 436 Gouvernorats...... _ ...... 407, 263 80, 202 420, 223 Basse-Egypt ...... 331, 199 18, 951 Z 24Z 818 21 5189, 728 912, 220 11 aute-Egypt 0 210, 332 15, 359 1, 030, 218 2, 172, 428 758,5313 1, 904, 194 Total 748, 794 114, 512 1 4,693, 5, 257, 499 - 71 Annuaire statistique del'Égypte,1923-24.Seisième mink. L. Cain, imerte Nationale, 1926.

- 141114.ba r _

46 a. WORLD ILLITERACY

By thesedata9,950,755,or92per cent,of the10,814,06iPersons 5yearsof ag:e andover, canneither readnorwrite.The numberof persons under 10yearsofage was 3,556,311. India.-Dataonliteracy inIndiaweregatheredat thecensusof IL 1921.Thèyarereported indetrl. byProvinces,a

Population ofIndia forwhich literacydataweregatOrcd

A ge Tot al M ales Females . _ Tottb. :n6, 0,r)5,231 162, 465, 129 153, r)90, 102 0-10 86, 403. 79S 43, 330, 934 i 4 3, 072, 864 10-15 -r 36, 74 1, 852 15-20 20, 171, 326 In, 570, 52n 20 andover 26, 144. KM 13, 648, s24 12, 496, NA Age unspecified... 166, 059, 878 84, 930, 170 81, 129 ...... ow. mi.M. I 704, 813 383, 875

Using thesame agegroupsthe absolutefigures forliteracy inany languageare: Literary inI ndiainanylanguage

-11

Literate Illiterate e Age - it__ Total Nab M ales F emales Total M ales Females 1=1 Total 22, 6(23, 651 19, g41, 438 3,782, 213 293, 4 31. 580 1 12, 623, 001 ! 150, 807, 889 1. 0-10 MS, 849 694,819 239, 030 85, 464, 949 42, 631, 115 , 4 2, 833, 834 10-15 2, (15 1 2, 220, 4411 463, 502 34, 057, 901 17, 950, 87T '1 16, 107, 024 15-20 2, 825, 735 2, 374, 049 451, 6841 23, 310, 155 11, 274, 775 I 12, 044, 380 20 andover.. OD 41 .0 - 16, 164, 5,4 14, 536, 656 1, 627,91m 149, S95, 304 70, 34)3, 514 79, 501, 790 Age unspecified 10, 542 10, 465 7 7 694, 271 373, 410 320, 861

.3e Literacy inEnglish isreportalasfollows:

Literacy in Indiain English A ANNE% ,-. ..0 Literate In English Age Total M ales Females

Total 2, 527, 350 2, 289, 188 238,162 0-10 60, 901 10-15 f 44, 395 16, 506\- 282, 654 Atl, 134 36, 520 15-20 $- 20 andover 438, 931 398, 174 40, 217 Age unspecified 1, 745, 280 1, 600, 367 118 11 ( IMarten, J. T., Census of India, 1021.Vol. I.India, PartsI and II.Report. Calcutta,India, 1924. _ - AV. POPULATION OVERHALF ILLITERATE 47 Thepercentages of literacy computedfrom the abovedata byage groupsandsex are:

Literacy in India byage groups and sex

Ages Tot al Men Women Ages Tot%) Men Women

(V) 20 andover 9. g 17. 1 ! r. 2 t)-- 1 0 2.1 1 2.9 Allages 7.2' 12. 2 1.8 10-1 ;) 7.4 11 2g 5 andover...... - 8.2 13. 9 2.1 15- 20. - 109 17.4 6 V 3. 10 andover 9.5 16. 1 2.3

k O

4The Union of SouthAfrica.The populationof alli h Southz Africa is reported foranenumeration ofMay3, 1921."The statistics for t he Union of South Africaaregiven in detailforacònsiderable number of items.Theyarenot given for literacyamongthe Euro- pean,Asiatic, and mixedracesof theUnion.Theyaregiven for the 4,697,813 native Bántus, who constitute67.8percent of the total population of6,928,580 in the Union.The absolutefigures *and the percentages for.the latest threecensusesare:

Dcgrre of educationamongthe Bantusof the Union ofSouth Africa . Numberper 1,000

PartIculaft 1901 191L 1921 I 1904 1911 1921

Real! and write 132, 73S 273, 0A2 455, 398 ; 51. 3 6A. 1 Read only 96. 9 29, 355 46, 593 . 68, 930: 11.3 11. ti Neither readnor write 14. 7 2, 424, 129 3, (46,479 4, 161, 361 935. 6 , 919. 8 885.8

Unspecified 4, 724 , 2. 132 12, 124 1. 8 .5 , 2.6 a. Total 2, 590, 946 4,019, 006 4, 697, 813 1, 0 1, OW 0 1, 000.0

These figuresapply of necessityto the total Bantu populaticin. The results tryingto determine the exact,agesof the Bantuswere sounsatisfactorythatuseisnowmade of only fourrough groupings: Infancy (less than1 year); childhood (1to 14 years); maturity (15 to 50); and oldagekö0 and over).In 1921,237,702wereclassedas infants, and1,718,714asbeing in childhood. - . .aa . aa. lb Unionof South Idea.Office of Census andStatistics, Pretoria.Thirdcensus of the population t he Union of Sout h Africa,cmnocrat edMay3, 1921.Report with summariesand analysis of the ilf;:filel tables, PArts 1 toIX.Protor 11.21 z

CHAPTER V Summary of DatesPresented and of Areas forWhich Adequate DataareNot Given The foregoing tables anddiscussions present the statistics'of illiteracyfor 62 politicaldivisions embracingan areaof 30,955,058square miles and inhabitedneartheyear1920 by 1,086,523,685people. The aréa and thenumber of inhabitantsconstitute, in eachcase, 'about 60percentof that of the earth.Roughly, one-fourthof thcse peopleareunder 10yearsofage,leaving about 814,900,000 of the agesof 10 andover,and if thecensusreportsand indices of illiteracy commonlrfised presentapicture at all true,alitdemorethan 50 percentof themcannotread and write.The situation is shown graphically in the followingmapsof the continents. Foreaseof reference, the politicaldivisionsarelisted here accord- ingtothe percentago groupingsshown in the tables. - Less than 10percent.Australia, Belgium,Canada, Canal Zone, Czechoslovakia, Denmark,England and Wales,France, Irish Free State, the central islands ofJapan, the Netherlands,New Zealand, Norfolk Island, NorthIreland, Norway, Europeansin Papua, Samoa, Scotland, Sweden,Swfrtzerland, Europeane in theUnion of South Africa, and the dbntinentalUnited States. 10 to 20percentEstonia, Hawaii, Hungary,and Evropeans in New Guinea. 20 to 30percint.Alaska, Argentina, Guam, Italy;Latvia, the Virgin Islands, Newfoundland,andLabradór. SO to 40pe\rcent.Cuba, Finland, Lithuania,Poland,Iliuguay,and

Yugoslavia.I 40io60#ercent. Chile Jamaica, theLcsward Islands, O Rumania, and Spain. 50 to 60percent.Ceylon, Colombia, BritishGuiana, British Malaya, Mexico, PortoRico, the Union of SocialistSoviet Republics, and the Philippines. 60 to 70percent.Brazil, Nicaragua, Portugal,and Venezuela. 70 to 80percent.--Dominican Republic. 80 to 90 1)er cent.Guatemalp.. 90 to 100percent.Dutch East Indies, Egypt,India, and the Bantus in the Union of SouthAfricg. ". a s 48

m- _ - - ,3P11 ADEQUATE DATANOT GIVEN 49 Areas for WhichAdequate DataAre Not Given No adequate dataonilliteracyarepresented herefor approximately 733,500,000 ofpeople, distributedamongthe continentsas follows: Asia,528,901,886; Africa,110,1 54,16 5; SouthAmerica,11,- 676,297; Oceania, 592,817; NorthAmerica,5,831,561; and _Europe, 75,386,270.The,areasin which thosemillions liveareshown in solid blackonthemaps.The readermust not conclude thatall ail) political divisions.shown in blackhaveahighrate of illiteracy. Several of themundoubtedly haveveryltsvrates. Asia.Most of thesemillionsfire in Asia and,to bemorespecific, in China, withanestimatedpopulation of436,094,9 53; Japanesepos- sessions,931,913; British possessions,8,668,080; Italian concessions, 110,269; Portuguese conpessions,1,040,671; FrenchIndia and Indo- China,19,388,512; Siam,9,207,355;Nepal,5,600,000; Bhutan, 250,000; Afghanistan,12,000,000; Persia,9,000,000; Syria and Leba- non,2,536,429; Iraq,2,849,282; Palestine,757,182; Transjordan, 200,000; Arabia, includingNejd, Yemen,Aden, Oman,and...Kuwait, estimatedat`10,000,000; and Turkeyin Asia,10,267,240. Manyi of thenumbers givenabovearemerely estimates.Taking a censusby the methodsadopted inwestern countries hasneverbeen attempted in Chita,and the estimatesrangefrom318,000,000 to 444,000,600.The figures forPersia, Nepal,Bhutan, Afghanistan, and Arabiaarelargely conjectural.Naturally itfollows-that almost nodataonilliteracyareto be had. The populationof Siam in191 1-12was8,266,408.Excluding the Circle of KrungDeb, withapopulationof 931,171,therewere 2,781,284 illiteratemenand3,63 1,225 illiteratewomen.1 Theterm "illiterate" isnot defined.On the basisof the totalpopulatidn, excluding Krung ljeb,this would be8 7.4per cent,and" for those5 yearofageandover,approximately85per cent.The Ministertr Foreign Affairsreported in August,1926, that theaverageof illiteracy (not defined)wasabout 79percent in 1 918-1920.The reductionof illiteracy inSiam is goingonrapidly.(Seep.58.) The illiteracyrate is known to be high in alltbese political divisions. The Europêailpopulation residentin themcan notbesomdchas one-fourth of1percent of the total;so,however literateitmaybe, it, wouldhave littleeffecton ageneralaverage. Africa.Thepopulation of Africaaround 1920 isestimatedat 129,801,000.2We have offered illiteracydata for only19;646,835, orfor Egypt andthe Union9f South Africa.The remaining 110,154,165areless than2per centof theEuroPeanraces.The illiteracyrate isveryhigh.

-1ptatisitcalyearbook of tbe Kingdom ofSiam, 1922.Seventh number.Published by the Department of CleneralStatistics, Ministryof Finance.English edition,1922. Apervti de la démographiedes diverspaysdu monde, 1925. . 50 WORLD ILLITERACY

South America.The South Americancountries for whichnodata aregivenincludeEcuador,2,000,000; Peru,5,550,000; Bolivia, 2,889,970;Paraguay,'1,000,000; French Guiana,44,202; Dutch Quiana,135,754; and Curacao,56,371.Experience has shownthat in orderto havealow.rate of illiteracyacountry must keep approximately one-fifthof its population inattendanceat educational institu- tions ofsomekind:The first four ofthese countries have onlysmall fractions, from3 to 7per cent,of their people inschool, and the illiteracyrate must be high'in all of them.The others havefrom 10 to 16percent. Oceania.The Britishpossessions haveapopulation of401 902 and includeWestern Samoa, the-Fiji, Gilbert, and ElliceIslands, the Solomon Islands,Tonga, andNauru.The Frenchpossessions, population138,693,areNew Caledonia, NewHebrides, and the French Establishmentsin Oceania. TheJapanese Pacific Islands haveapopulation of52,222.The totalpopulation of592,817 is from 33x2to 4per centEuropeanorJapanese.Several of the islands haveexcellent schoolsystems.The AmericanConsulat Papeete reports that there is but littleilliteracyamong personsunder30 yearsofagein French Oceania. North America.TheLatin-American couritrie3not rep3rte iare Honduras,773,408, Salvador,1,550,634; Costa Rica,4S5,050; Panama 446,098; and Haiti,1,631,260.About12per centof the population is enrolledin schools inHonduras and Panama;about 5per centin Salvador andHaiti. The Britishpossessions includeBritish Horiduras,45,317, and the various islands:Barbados,156,312; Bermudas,20,127; Bahamas, 53,031; Falkland,3,431; Windward,103,477; and Cayman,10,865. From one-seventhto one-fifth of the population isenrolled in schools and the educationalsystemsarefáirly adequate. The Frenchpossession,sareGuadaloupe and itsdependencies, Martinique, St.Pierre, and Miquelon,totalpopulation,478,196. Approximately one-tenthof the populationis in attendanceatsome school. Greenland hasagood schoolsystem for its population of14,355 spreadoutover a coast."so long that if itwerestraightened-out it would reach from'the Scawto North Africa." The illiteracyrate

is low. . Europe.Amongthe countries of Europefor whichwe areunable . to quote accurate, authentic statisticsseveral undoubtedlyhave illiteracyrates farbellow10per cent or even 5.Theseare:Germany, withapopulation of59,852,204; Austria,6,535,759; Liechtenstein, 11,000; Luxemburg,260,767; the Free City of Danzig,383, 995; and

the Channel Islandsand the Isle ofMan,150,514.The well-known i attire of Germanytoward educationand the strictnesswith which % / ADEQUATE DATA NOT 'GIVEN 51

its compulsory education lawswereandareenforced insuresthat the percentageof illiteracy in thatcountryshall beverylow, probably less than 1percentamong persons10yearsofageandover.Former Austriawas acountry of heterogeneous population andhadaji illiteracy rate wellover5percent.Present Austria ishomogeneous; about 97per centGerman-speaking and probablywith little illiteracy. The Free City of Danzig continuesto maintain the excellent school systemestablished under German rule.Thisgroupof divisions with atotal population of67,016,702 probably has fewer than5percent of its people 10yearsofageandoverthatcannot read and write. Iceland, with94,690 people; Andorra, 5,231; San Marino,12,000; Monaco, 22,153; Gibraltar,18,540; Malta, 224,680; andAlbania, 803,959, probably have somewhat higherrates. Therates in Greece, with 5,536,375 inhabitants, andTurkey in -Europe, with 1,474,403,areundoubtedlyveryhigh. If the reader wishesto indulge insome verycrude butnot entirely unwarranted estimates, hemaytake the figures givenfor the total unreported population in each of thecontinents and subtractone- fourth.The remainder will be roughlythe number ofpersons10 yearsofageandover. ApplyingtoAsia and Africaanilliteracy indexof 90percent; to South America, 50percent; to Oceania, 30per cent ; toNorth America, 40percent; and to Europe, 10percent, he will haveanestimateas follows:

Population ! Cont inent 10 eals i Index ! Number of orage i(per cent)illiterates andover

..,,,ammo

Asia. 396,676,414 90 3:)7, 008, 770 A frica 82,615.6Zi 74, 354, 060 Sout h A met1( a 8,757,22;i 50 4, 378, 610

()mania 444,613 . 30 133, 380 Nort h A merien 4,373.670 40 1, 749, 470

Europe 56,r39.700 I 10 :P, 663, Q70

Tot al_ _ 54P.407,243 80.6 443, 278, 260

This combined withthe data in the first paragraphon page48 make`apopulation10yearsofageandoverof 1,363,900,000, of which850,500,000areilliterate.That is62per cent.

a f 52 WORLDILLITERACY

a e - 1

714 1

rAllt ,

4110

gam

a* LEGEND: ElLESSTHAN 10 18,//20TO30* \\\3OTO 40%t a(50TO 60% e 0A60TO 707, t770 TO 8C4, 8 0 '6'4 TO907ó 41111NO DATA l';-14111/411tkle...

s czt 6 MI , C=111 r .4 YVitti0 't

MAP r--" or NORTH- AMER I CA 1927 SC. e l f

0 400 GOO sAILIS i

Percentage of Illiteracy STATISTICS 53

4710

0. toga% LEGEND: V4is+AK ZipmoiorAtrAvAvAktrAvAvAve 00, % rvvvvWvve % L ILESS THAN 10 14 it.AVOWV if 111110 TO20,fo "VI % //// 20TO30 904440 0 .1.1.14OA% \\\\\3 0 T 0 4 0 % y 9. 4 =40 TO 50% TO 70 %//i/ to0999+49 . r 4460 %". e"69:666460640 NO DATA ....WW14%46WA49.01S "' M\ISOTO60 a 046.+9X64111646.414.60.6:46V WO4 .. :$0444.:% V # 4.-s. , 14- 4 6 1160.1e ! . *1 40,°\1, 0+400,,,,,,m,vary,:0: 4.0+4,A,40,v,_,0,w,./01,, r ++44*4+4.1. ftli44 _ %,,,,.1ECI #14 r En "gioThi m EEO , e .09 n LE ass . / pa3Esri, .:, IkPefroassa 44. 000.4eN, p ausses , t e -.°CirI , 40 RRUIIILI _EiE illosurim- .% 1 (I. *4-ill 011E E E ...... 4. kE Noma wriEsE 1 LI A P wellegp EURIOPE '917 SCakt Pe 400 I "kw

LEGEND: 50 TO 60go III90 TO 100(fo NO DATA

r _._ LESS THAN 10 c] D

4k----1111,

13'

AR, 41. i."7 4Z.ve7_,

fdlij.4ff -4 ..c^-="i' II ..%?-: 't,i.i.e % 1 . I. - c A , lc 0 ' 1- = IC412..

is 4.

r:, w.,4111 $ 1. ` l" 9 t A

Per,centage of Illiteracy AO"

VI eat= . . -iJar- 54 WORLD ILLITERACY

a 4 $I 40. " , *I. N s, 44 --- 1°,0 A40 pow ,07 *# * f , .p vk.. . v.%\1 ..i 1 i 4, J' A :% 14. v"VI A ..JA * v..... aa- iA.A. Ib , ... AVt.4..i -404ApAl/ to* I I ,w v 1 ** ....4 CO.( 4. v I " il.. ----- A u**.40,11A&01Q1644,0a O + ID * 0 /.grwV4rIr ei .. * 4 dOP # ...-) #444 + . .4. *_.,_ - * 4, #+ + 4 1 i *******-. +++++ -v *i at,* .. *JOA Od 6. A1 AkW vww410, L el k4 r r 4 1r.64e O. .4) 4.4 00 . O..+ .4.41 P NgP " V4 r Ov Owl k1r 4.* 44 . e e e Nvi) New NiPw- 1. . - ft. , . - - -- .. I, -. 1 .**A* 4 .4. V *4* .44e. . + 4. s % , . _,, 4 A N N -. f . a.. . ***4*** Ni % .4 s& " A%"0.0.44 EL, %LI )40% I,.... aw4r'lip t w .***444.4 % t V*".Aole f o . IVt . 4.4 - k A i_4r... - 1 a* .. . .. -J: CS) 4. / N.. 4. gr +4+ N. I 1 * N. *, .)44, mob efdeAl e. -.- ) ,, LEGEND: ,A r % jp TO i - /- 6/20 30 % t % ; \\\\30TO 40 % 1 \ a /ilk()TO50 W50TO fO% WitZ60T 07°0tA NOD4NTA

it I=I

4 MAP or s SOUTH AMERICA I9 2 7 vta ICt, 0 * 4'0 .4 I

11=11 Percentageof Illiteracy STATISTICS 55

, - 1 T .s 6 :111\1

s. 11 4-9

dr.

- IMP qb r. N-

I- N n / r-rio t . r I I t 1 , i 1 e e ' U Oft I I qe-fN 4.11, ..

A "- el` 11) .4

11% -"N,vi or. s e e.'te "lb)

Ni iV i .... I ,1 . ? ) i.,!,

_ , LEGEND; %s. e r LESS THAN10%n=--r..1 't t11.4 N i an90 TO100% v, NO DATA 1 -011 soo:60.:11 's 1

% -re. ego so Op OP Nio-ioNio 1,::: k No t$ m. , r-- t:,;\.- , il e .1 1 i I I to t I , t -I 1 t i I e re-I t -. ....,,,CII % MAP AFR I CA 9Z ' sc t ts;L $

111

Percentage oflilit(!racy 56 WORLD ILLITERACY

es, LEGEND: C:=3LESS THAN10% VM00TO 601j4 III90 TO 100 MNNO DATA

o 4

411. 010). ' 0.

MAP OF

OCEANIA_ 1' I aI WOO

- 4 , a- =4=r46.6 a. Percentage of Illiteracy

44 CHAPTER VI

Is IlliteracyDecreasing?

It.wouldbe intenselyinterestingto inquire intotheremote caifs'es of illiteracy; to compare the rates indifferentracesto workou t corre- lations betweenindustrialgroupsand illiteracyindices; tbfollow the history ofeducation andnote the fluctuationsin literacydueto wellor ill conceivedschool lawsand nationalpolicies ofeducation,towars, andto great social. andeconomicmovements; to inquireinto theatti- tudes of thechief religionsof theworldaowardeducationand their effectsonthe literacyfigures; andto note therelationshipsthat exist between climateand generalpublichealth andtheamount of illiteracy. Neither time,thescopeof this investigation;northepresent status of the datapermits suchanexhaustivestudy. Itis sufficient to pointout here that theareasof leastilliteracywhichareshownon themapscorrespondverycloselywith theareasof " highclimatic energy" andof betterhealthconditionsasindicated ina recent book dealing withmanand hisenvironment.' Whatevertheremotecausesof illiteracymaybe, theimmediate causeisinsufficient school aCcommodationandpoor orpoorlyenforced compulsoryeducation laws.The ultimateeradicationof illiteracy isa matterof prevention,not ofcure,andprevention liesin adequate systems ofcommonschools.Therecognitionof thisas a matter of courseis wellexpressed inthe repliesfrom Norway,Sweden, and Switzerlandwhichwehave quoted.It hasbeen madethe subjectof carefulstudy inCanada.' Thecombinedpublic andprivateschool systems of the worldhavenot been, andare notnowby halfor more, equalto the task of makingliterate alltheyoungpeople mentallyand physicallycapable ofbeingso.Thepresent widelyextendedmove- mentsrto eradicateadult illiteracyarein thenature of curingatrouble caused bythat lack,and theirsuccessisencouraging,not only in the matter of reducingilliteracy, butin gainingnewknowledgeof the educabilityof the adultmind. Theywill needto be continuedand improved formany years toçome,.but theyshould beaccompanied byenergeticafforts Costrengthen themeansofprevention. Undoubtedlyilliteracy, worldilliteracy,isonthe decrease.The trend ofmost of the majdrsocial andpoliticalmovements in the last 11.1C 07.1.101

Huntington,Ellsworth.Tbe pulse ofprogress, 1926. faak I Dominion of Canada.Dominion Bureauof Statistics.Illiteracy andschool attendancein Canada. Ottawa,1926.

"lb 57 4 58 WORLDILLITERACY a half or quarter centurywasin directionsthat stimulateandrequire greater literacy. Thetheory thateducationshould belimitedto the governingand privilegedclassesmet withmany sharpreverses.Amongseveral populationgroups, some of themverylarge on'es,itwasreplacedby the principle of educationfor all.Thesemicentenaryin Japan,1922, of theissnance ofthe codeof populareducation in1872wasthe cele- bration of60,000,000 ofpogpleoverthedevelopmentofacomplete schoolsystem thatnowenrolls99yer centof allchildrenof school 'age,asagainst31per cent thatwereattendingschoolat the beginning of thehalfcentury.Theconceptionof populareducation'began to take hold inSiam in1872, butgrew very slowly until1923, when tile primaryeducation lawwent into effect..Sincethen Progresshas been rapidin thisnatio4 of9,000,000.About1900 the reversal of policywaseffected for10,000,000 ofpeople inthePhilippinesand Porto Rico, and in20yeaysthe illiteracyrateswerereduced'by30 .per centor more. The threegreat empires,China,Russia, and'Turkey,with590,000,- 000 of people,adopted *democraticforms ofgovernment, and with them thecorollary offree publiceducation.Themasseducation movement in China,3involvingasit doesthe abolitionof theclassical languageand theadoption ofPei-hua forlitAlrarypurposes,is the most comprehensiveplan ofdeliberatelychangingawrittenlanguage and reducingilliteracyeirerundertaken.If itsucceedsto the point of making300,060,000of Chi4eseliterate,world,illiteracywill have been reducedby sòmetthingmorethanone-third., Within theUnion ofSovietRepublics thereductionof illiteracyis afixed polity ofboth theUnionGovernmentand thoseof thesepa- rate Republics.The annualreport for1926-27 of thePeoples'Com- missar ofEducationin theRussianSocialisticFederatedRepublic states: 4 op Accordingto the officialreports of theprQvincialpoliticaleduca- tional departments,thepumber of"likpunkts"(centers forthe liquidation ofilliteracy)was as follows: "Likpunkts" ofinstruction(regularschools forilliterates,partlysup- *;portedfrom the Unionbudget___.___AmaromIDe.m..m..=...... a1 266 "Likpunkts"(in 28administrativeunits) _ m...... 4a. 15 934 Group andindividual centerkin17 administrativeunits 10 398 Schools for semiliterates 3 127 Total number ofestablishments 30 725 .... 3 Yen, Y. C.James. How to educateChina's illiteratemillions fordemocracy in No. 15, Vol.II. a decade.Bul. 1923, ChineseAt.Assn. for theAdvancementof Educ.,Peking, China. a 4 NarodniKomissariatProsveschinia R. S. F. S.R.NarodnoyeProsvescheniein R. S. F.S. R., 1926- 1927 uchehnornugodu. do Is ILLITERACYDECREASING? 59

For theyear 1925-26 incximplete datashow that859,000 illiterates and64,000 semiliterates,or atotal of923,000,wereinstructed.Ac- cordingto reports from 10 Provinces,individualgroupinstruction 11( thisyear was more successful than duringtheyearprevidus.They wereinstructing23per centof thenumber ofilliteratesasagainst 12per centin1924-25.In certainProvinces thepercentagewas higher, forexample,62per centin NorthDwina and44percent in Yaroslav. A comparisono(tlie totalsfor1925-26Withthose of1924-25 shows adecrease of3,515 in the numberof "lilkunkts"and 66,077 inthe number ofparticipavts. Education inTurkey hasbeenbrought:muchcloserto, and within easier reachof, thepoorand thosefar removedfrom thetowns. Since1918 the Secretariatof Educationin Mexicohas beencarry- ingonorganIzedattempts to dduciaea greater proportion of the 14,000,000 of peopleandto reduce illiteracy. Thereadjustmentof nationalboundaries inEurope andAsia sub- sequent to the WorldWar andthe establishmentofnewnational units resultedin smallerpoliticaldivisionsmorenearly coincident withethnicgroupsandmorehomogeneousinpopulation.At the sametime itgave anadded dignityto languages thathad theretofore been littlerecognized.tndoubtedlythis hashad, and willcontinue to have,a strong influence in reducingilliteracy.The smallerethnic groupsof Europethat haveformany years maintained theirown nationalgovernmentsarealmost freeof illiteracy.It is reasonable to expect that thepeoples ofFinland,Estonia, Latvia,Lithuania, Poland,Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia,Saorstat Eireann,and Palestine, with theircloser interestin theirgovernments andtheir incrimsed pride oflanguage, willcontinue theactiveeffortsuponwhich they have allenteredto maintainadequateschoolsystems.Thecensuses to beiakenaround1930 will be formost of them theirsecond national inventories sincethe WorldWar.The gainsthey havemade in the decade inaneducationalwaywill beawaited with intelesp. The provisionfor educationof minoritiesin their mót0ertongues, and thérecent recognitionby severalcountries oftw? 'ormorelan- guages,asthose ofthecourts and of the-governments,musttendto increaseliteracy.Notafew oftheareasof theworldowetheir high 'rates of illiteracyto attemptsto forceparentsto educate theirchildren ina tongueforeignto them and in racialideals withwhich theyare not in sympathy.The betterrecognitionoflanguggerights thathas comein the.lastquarter ofa century must result inmorepublications, more vehicles for thecarrying ofknowledge,and schoolsmorein sympathywith thehomes. With theexceptions ofAbyssinia,Egypt,and Liberia,Africa is . almost whollyunderEuropeancontrol.The Europeanpopulation 33194-29 5 60 WORLD ILLITERACY is increasing in numbers;and literacy, through, missionary,govern- mental, and private effort, is growingwith it.Immigration isturn- ing in that direction, and scienceis bentuponpreventingorcuring th'ediseases that make much of thecontinent uninhabitable by Caucasians. Another important factor in the lesseningof illiteracy is the changed attitude toward the education ofwomenand girls.The activeoppo- sitionto,orapathy toward it,asbeing much less important thanthe education of boys andmen,is disappearing.In those countries where the change has had timeto show its effects, suchasthe United States of America, New Zealand, andthe Commonwealth of Australia, the illiteracy index is lower forwomenthan it is formen,and particu- larlysoin theyounger age groups.Among coeltries where it has not yetcomeinto full effect,wehave such statisticsasthe following:

Comparative indices of illiteracy formenandwomeninsevencountries

Per cent of illiteracy Per vent of illite1.8cy among among Political division Political division

Men Women , Men LWomen -

Bulgaria 37. 24 82.81 t Egypt 86. 41 97. 90 Spain 39.72 5304 India 87. 79,. 9ti. 19 Portugal 60 10 7436 Ceylon 43. 7 78. 8 Russia in Europe 49. 88 71.81 ft

In these countries the discrepancy isnotsogreatamongthe lower age groups. The industrial revolution, the wealth of séientific Aiscovery and of invention, the spread of vocaitional education, and thenewinterest in healthas anational asset have all been refleted in bettersystems of education, with oinsequent decrease of illiteracy andnearilliteracy. The statistical evidence of lower illiteracyratesis fairly complete in thecouniriesfor which therearedataonilliteracyand conclusive. 0. In the following datanoallowance is made for differences in criteria used in the various countries, but for eachcountrycitedcarehas been takentoseethat the figures for the different datesarecomparable. Europe.--The proportion of the population of Belgium,notinclud- ing those of less than 8years,that couldnotread and writewas 30.26percent in 1880; 25, in 1890; 19.1, in 1900; 13.1,in 1910; 7.9, in 1920.Thepercentage ofilliteratesamongthe military contingents of the Netherlands decreased from 18.2, in 1865to 12.3,in 1875; 10.5, in 1885; 5.4, in 1895; 2.4, in 1905; 0.6, in 1913;and0.35, in 1923. Therates for Franceare16.5percentin 1901; 12.4, in 1906;and 8.2, in 1921.Doctor Stellareportsfor Italy, 68.8percentilliteracy in 1872; 48.5, in 1901; and 37.6, in 1911.The résumé for Spain is 63.79 percent in 1900; 59.39, in 1910; and 52.23, in 1920.For continental IS ILLITERACYDECREASING? 61 Portugal the data offour consecutivecensusesshow 61.9per cent in 1890; 59.9, in1900; 56.4, in 1911; and54.6, in 1920.The reduction in Bulgariawasfrom 72.09per centof illiteracy in1905 to 55.54per centin 1920. Africa.Amongthe European populationof the Unionof South Africa thepercentages of illiteracy for theyears1904, 1911, and1918, were,respectively,4.11, 2.34, and 1.24.Among the Bantus ithe Union for' theyears1904, 1911, and 1921, theywere93 56per cent, 91.98, and 88.58.In the decade1907 to 1917, the reductionin Egypt wasabout 2per cent. Asia.The criteriafor determining illiteracyin Indiawere so changed in1911 that comparisons with earlierdatacan notbe made. In the decade1911 to 1921 the number of literatepersons rosefrom 14,500,000 to 22,600,000,or22percent, againstanincrease in the population of1.2percent.Ifpersonsunder 10years areexcluded, the increase ofliterate males is16 and that of literate femalesis 71 per cent.The improvement resultsin raising the proportionof literate malesper1,000 from 140 in 1911to 161 in 1921 in the population, and of literate femalesfrom 13to 23.The nuwber ofliteratewomen throughout India is stillsmall, but there hasbeenasteady advance in the educationof girls in the last20years. Theprogressof literacy in Ceylon is shownin the table heregiven. The continuinincrease since 1881 is attributedto the adoption of better educationalpolicies. s Progress of literacy in Ceylon Ig ..:.

Particulars 1881 I 1891 1901 1911 ¡ 1921

Per milt of literacy: .4

Among men 28. 9 I 36.1 42 47. 2 ; 56. 3

.. _ _ ! Among women .. 3. 1 5. 3 8. 5 12. 5 ! 21.2

Statistical data for decreasesin illiteracy in the NetherlandEast Indiesarenot offered.A sketch of education in thatcolony, dated 1914, states:5 In order to disseminatesomeelementary educationaswidelyaspossiblea scheme of popular schools, so-called "village schools," has been broughtinto action, which reaches ROW childrenthat formerly did not receiveanyeducation. Withinafewyears3,000 of these schoolswereerected, andmany more are planned for the future. A remarkable feature in the awakening withregard to education is furthermore the demand for education of girls,which is beginningto make itself felt amongst 'all communities and nationalities.All the elementaryaswellasthe secondary schools, with the exception ofsomepurely technical schools preparingformore masculine occupations,are now opento female pupils.

s Netherland East Indian San Francisco Committee.Department of Industry, Agriculture,and Corn 4 mime.No. VI.Education in Netherland East India.1914.

- 62 WORLD ILLITERACY

*r. Oceania.-The progressive change in the literacy and illiteracyrates for Australia is reportedasfollows:8

Per cent of eduzated and of illacratepersonsin A ustraliaasshown by sixconseclutite censuses

11 Particulars 1671 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921

Read and write/ 62. 39 ; 70. 73 73. 43 O. (4 St 54 84. Si Reed only It). 6s 6. I 3. 43 2.0,3 .42 .28

Can not read . 2ti. 93 23. 12 21. 14 17. NS 15. 04 14. 91

Thesepercentagesarebasedonthe total population, and since thee percentagesof those thatcannotreadarerelatively low, the inclusion of the children under 5yearsofagemakesaproportionately high in- creasein them. An approximation for those 5yearsofageandover thatcannotreadmaybe had by subtracting 11percent-thepropor- tion in Australia of the population under5yearsof age-from the index for "cannotread " for eachyear,and dividing the remainder by 89..(Seepp.4 and 5.) Thepercentages amongthose 5yearsofageandover atsuccessive censusesin New Zealandare asfollows:7

I. Per cent of literary in New Zealandasshown by sixcensuses 1.11.

Particulars 1874 1881 1891 1901 1911 1916 1

Read and write 82. 85 . 85. 98 89. 26 93. 37 91. 20 9.ri. Oti -fr N Read only 9. 33 8. 50 4. 47 2. 15 ! .Sk3 . Can not read 7. 82 ; 7. 52 6. 27 4. 48 4. 97 4. 17

North America.-Progress in the eliminationof illiteracy in Canada is measurable dire.ctly for theagesof 10 andoverand byage groups asbetwec;rx1891 and 1921. N. direct comparison isavailable for 1901.Thepercentage illiterate of the population 10yearsandover, exclusive of Indians, in1891was13.8; in 1921 itwas5.1. For the continental United Statesof America thepercentageof illiteracywas20 in 1870; 17 in 1880;13.3 in 1890;10.7 in 1900; 7.7 in e1 9 1 0;anti 6 in 1920.The gains in Canada and .theUnited Stateswere made while both countriesweresubjecttoaconsiderable influx of immigrafits,ahigh perCentage of whomwereilliterate. Among the outlyingpartsof the United States the reductionsin the decade 1910to 1920were:In PortQ Rico from66.5 to 55percent, in tho Canal Zone from7.7 to 5.7, in Alaska from26.5 to 24.8, and in Hawaii from 26.8to 18.9.An increase in American.Samoa froni

4 to 4.2 Per cent is reported. . - Official Yearbook of the Commonwealth (if Australif. ,1-0if", 1924.Commonwealt h bureau ofcensuy and statistics, Meltourne.

IRoport of mphsofeensus of population of Dominion of New Zealand taken for the night of Oct.15, tow Malmm 1.'raser, (ioveromentstatistician.Wellington, 1920. IS ILLITERACYDECREASING? 63

The numberofpersonsin Mexico reportedby thecensusof 1900as being unableto read and writewas11,%61,669,out ofatotal of13,- 441,257 for valichthe informationwasobtained,makinga percentage of illiteracyof 83.8.By approximatelytbesamecriteria thenumber of illiteratesin1,920was 8,20S,454 out ofatotal of13,177,368,or62.2. In the periodfrom 1893to 1921. Guatemalareduced itspercentage of illiteracy from88.63to 86.82. Thepercentage of the total populationof Cuba thatcould readwas 19.2 in1861, 27.7 in1887. 36 in 1899,40.9 in 1907, and47.6 in 1919.

Percent of literacy_ shown by6censcs in Jamaica'

Per cent Head aryl!Read ; Year Tot Al t hat can write only . reador write A- - ou 1%4;1. 50. S26 fs. 333 119, Wit.) 31. 3 17I 71, 074 SI, 39s 1v.1 12. 472 M. 0 I91 115, 4i' i I 15, )O 231. 16S 4:). 7 177, 79.1 114, 493 292, 2SA n2. 5 1 4 1 I. 33S, 263 , 10A, n 446. 77ts 1 `!i2 1 b2. 3 389,376 6."), L', 45g. 0.33 60. 9 N - T .1M nntml veneralreport of Jamaica,toget her with t he depart mentalreports for 1921. Print ing Office,Kingston, 1922. Government

South America.Bythecensusof 1890, theper centpf the total populationin Brazil thatcould neitherreadnorwritewas85.2.In 1920 itwas75.5.The numberof illiteratesamongthe conscriptsto theailny in Argentinashowsasteady decreasefrom42.28per cent in1?13 to19per centin 19. Forfourcensusesthepercentages of the populationin Chile thatcouldnotreadwere71.1 in 1885;68.1 in 1895; 60 in1907; and 49.7 in1920.Between the dates1891 and1926 thepercentage that couldnot read in 'the totalpopulation ofVene- zuelawasreduced from83 to about 73.5.From1881 to 1921 the change inBritish Guianawasfrom about65per centilliteracyto 50.5. This geneialprogressin the eliminationof illiteracyhas been made whilethe populationof the worldwasincreasingat the rate of about 150,000,000adecade'. 4'

a. OP *-

CHAPTER V I I Illiteracy andAge Groups The echteationalinventory.By. theprocessof collecting,compiling, and analyzingthe illiteracy figuresfor eachage group, anationmay atEonecensustakea verysignificant inventorynot only of thepresent illiteracystatus of its people but of theresults of itseducational policies for80or morepreviousyears.The followingtables (pp.65 and 67), computedfrom the officialreturns of 1920 for Bulgaria and

Spain,.areexamples of relativelycomplete andvery . valuable data regarding illiteracyin differentage groups.These countriesare selected because theyare amongthe few for which stichreturns *are published, and, furth'ernaore,the histories ofthetwoarestrongly contrasting in their mainfeatures. Bulgaria is comparativelyyoung as anindependelfnation."At the beginning ofthe nineteenthcentury the existence of the Bul- garianrace wasalmost unknown inEurope,even tostudents of Slavonic literature."Thecountrywasinvaded by Russiain 1810 and1828.The Bulgarian languageis spokenbya verysmallper cent of the world's population.Books wiitten inmodern Bulgarian begantoappearabout 1824 andBulgarian schoolsabout 1835.This newnational spiritwasengaged inaconstant struggle with Greek influenceunitil1872.In 1878 thecountrywasfreed fromabout five centuries of Turkishrule anda yearlater formed itsown government as aprincipality.In 1885 it becameanindependent kingdom. Throughout thecentury the Bulgarian people havebeen consistently developinganational solidarityand pride. Spain isoneof the old, long-establishedindependent national entities.It began thecentury from 1820to 1920on ahigh level and with itsowndistinctive culture,aculture that. hadthen been carried by Spanishmigrantstomanyother sectionsof the world, notably Central andSouth America andparts of Africa. .Spanish is oneof the8or10 most important literary andscientific langilages.. Thecenturywasfor Spainatime of comparativepeace,hat the people didnot make grbat gains in literacy.

I EncyclopediaBritannica, 11th ed., Vol. IV. 64 ILLITERACY AND AGE GROUPS 65 ft

TABLE5. Distributionbyage groupsof literates (can read and write) in Bulgaria, censusof December 31, 1920

1 Number ofPer cent Per chit of Age of total ; Literates persons population literacy 1 1 3 4

1.4ec t han 5 years 495. 913 10. 23 I- None N fine 5. 118, 390 2. 44 ' 29 e0. 02

: 6. 149, 715 3. 09 : 2.295 1. 53 7 104, 281i 2. 15 23, 445 1 22.48 0 . b.. 136, 479 i 2. 82 67,105 49.17 u ! 109, 840 2. 27 1 74.292 67.64

5 .301 i to 9, inclusive ...... 618, 575 I 12. 77 167,166 .27.02 I _

, 10 146, 174 36w:2- '97,364 1 66.61 . . 11 AM 35S 2 19 , 81,125 i 76.28 12 142. 596 2. 94 97.862 : 68.63 13 12r. 476 2. 51 87,573 ; 72.09 . )4 125, 013 2. 58 , Kb. 620 i 70. $ii ,

10 to 14. inclusive 641, 617 ¶ 3. 24 452, 544 70.53

1' 1 2:1. 757 2. 59 83, 857 i 66.68

...... 116, 234 2. 40 79, 1R4 I 68.12 17 105, 551 2. 18 75, 141 71.19 is ..... 111, 616 '2 33 74, 879 67.09 19. 79, 627 1. 65 59, 227 74.38

15 to 19. inclusive 538, 78 11. 15 I 372, 288 69.10

20 129. 364 2. 67 82, 803 , 64.01 21 M. 172 1. 34 I 48, 045 73.72 22 85. S18 1. 77 58, 103 67.70

80. 242 1j5 . 56, 204 70.04 24...... 73, 636 I 1. 52 50, 941 69.18

20 to 24, inclusive 434, 231 8. 95 296. 096 68.19

2: 103, 212 2. 13 56, 309 54. 66 71. 254 1. 47 45, 803 64.28 '27 55, 783 I 1. 16 36, 590 65.59 ION 74, 604 1. 54 43, 250 57.97 211...... 3S, 606 . 25. 777 , 66.77

. WI to 214. inclusive 343, 459 7.- 09-. 207, 729 60.48 30-3' 300, 7K4 6. M 162, OR 54.09

35-40 311. 135 6. 45 ; 157, 030 50.47 40-45 111.... 225, 261 4. 6S .96, 043; 42. 64 45-50 .3- 191, 472 4. 00 , 73, 764 38.52 50-55. 178, 671 3. 70 60, 716 33.98 M)-04 153. 548 45. 033 . 29.33 60-65 137, 260 Ilit 155" 27, 302 19.89 65-70 95, SO7 1. 97 17, 049 17. 80 70-75 81, 597 1. 68 i 9, 698 11. 89 75-80 39. 074 .82 4. 835 11 37 8r) 33, 184 .69 2, 560 7. 71 85-90 11, 441 .24 i 956 b. 36 90-95 1 81 057 .17 39ts 4. 94 95-100 2, 809 .06 141 5.02 100 andover 2. 161 .04 57 2. 64 Age unknown Z 126 .04 854 40. 17

Total 4 846 971 2, 154, 945 44. 46

Buigaria.Thetable for Bulgaria gives theabsolute figures and percentages of the population, and the absolute figures andpercentages of those whocanread aniMrite (literates) by1-year periods from5 to 30yearsof age; and by5-year periods from 30to 100.Note the compositionof the literategroup(column 5).None of them is under5yearsofage.Between theagesof 5 and 9, inclusive the per centof literacymounts'from 0.02to 67.64.Naturally it should 66 C. WORLDILLITERACY

. , mount rapidly .in thoseages.The chifdrenarebeginningtogo to schoolP;.0.7 the compulsoryeducation lawbecomes operative. Between10 and 14, inclusive,theper centof literacyfluctuates from 66.61to 70.89.If the schoolsystem is highly effective ail('the compuls'oryeducation lawsenforced,onewould,expet*theper cent for theseages,10 to 14,to continue mountingrapidly,rather thap beingon acomparativelevei, untilit rea(vhedfrom 95to 98Per cent foi,theageof 15.Compulsoryeducation laws,other than thosefor continuationschools, usually(*ease .to operate after the child is14, and theper cent no longer risestoany great extent. Note againin the datain column5 that theper centof literacyis verylow in theage group 90to MO and risv fairly reotularlyand rapidlyto 76.2$per centin thegroup 11yearsofagein 1920. A considerablenumber ofelementsaffect thesepercentages and the increases.The 'actualpart whiethe. h elementplayscan notbe i ascertained.The Bulgarianswho N efrom90to 100yearsofaire in 1920werefrom1 to 10yearsold in 100.In,18.30, the1-to-10-year groupmadeupabout25per centof thr population.In1920 the remainingmembers ofthatgroup were 0.23per cantof the total. The losshadbeenby death,mi!rration, andchange pf national boundarir.In orderto know exactly the efrAstwhichthe growing schoolsystem hadontheper centof literacy,onewould needto know andtake intoconsiderationtheper cent asitwasan'Iong those now nolonger living,those thathadgoneinto othercountries l>,Nr migration.orchange ofboundaries,andanyinunigrantsto Bulgaria. _.- In general,the deatr.ateis believedto be somewhat, loweramong literates thanamongilliterates, andilliteracy i¡thought,to be slightly les5amongmigrantsthan it isamongthose thatstayin theirnative countries, -soit wouldseemthat these fwofactorsareinpartcqm- Tensatory. Undoubtedlythe inc'reasein literacyfrom about5per centamongth?se90 to 100yearsofage to 76perceittamongthose V'11yearsofageis roughlyrepresentative ofa centuryofprogressin educationamongthe Bulgarianpeople. Theper centof literacyin 'Bulgariais fairlyconstant, about 68to \70,amongthe peoplein theage group 15-to 25.After 25 there isa ..\\sharp fallingoff with thenet result that theaverageof literacyamong those25 to 29yearsofage,inclusive,is60.48percentasagainst 68.19 for those20 to 24, inclusive.Among those30yearsofageand overthe decreaseinpercentage of literacy is*consistent and rapidas theageincreases;the.yreatest change,10per cent,is shown* bythe age group 60 to 65. 4 Theloweredpercentages of literacyatthetiges of 20, 25,30, 40,grid 60areingreat part dueto the tendency of allpeopleto give theirages 4in numbers endinkwith Oor5.This is especiallytrue of illiterates ILLITERACY ANDAGE GROUPS 67

a. and shows itself in the markedlyincreasedpercentage of illiteracy reported at thoseages. r Spain.-Percentsof literacyundertwo definitions, "Can read

only" and "Canwriter,". and of illiteracyunder the definition,"Can notread,"aregiven in Table6,page67 byage groupsforSpain. Note in column 4 that in theage groups 5 to 15years,inclusive, the increase in theper centof "Can write" peopleis gradual, 12.7to ; 58.9. lf the schoolystenitookafirm holdon ahighperi tageof the children, the increase shouldOld would be sharp dgreat. Reading frolp the other end of theagescalP, the peoPle in Spainthat werefrom 90to 100yearsofagein 1920werefrom1 to 10 irr 1830; those thatwereSO to 00 in 1920,werefrom 1to 10in 1840; those tehatwere70 to 80 in 1e020,werefromI to 10 in 1850.Thepercent- agesof literacyamongthe remaining membersof thosegroups are respecrively 28.8,32.3, and 37.7.The highestpercent shown by any age groupin Spain is64.4amongthose of 21to 25years,people that atteded school in the decadefrom about1900. to 1910.The general change in thepast 50yearsin Spain has been.asteady but rather slow inc-rease in thedirection ofgreater literacy.

TAPILE G. Pcr-ccoagtsofpop,dationand degree..? of instruction for differentage groupsinSpain,censqsof 1 9.?0I

1 Population of I Not deter-# t. ! Canreadonly Can write Can not read given age 1, mined i t. \ge rroup, a. Per Per Per Per Per Nurtvr N uniter Number ; Number cent cent cent centNumbercent

_ -

Lssthan:.ycars ,

(ifngt, , , 2.2!'at,4310. I. 41S ROC 1. 6-16 0. 07 2, 249, 439 99. 8 , 1, 446 s. ¡et() O. 06 5 4 6093 r 2 1 years 2. 0 16,1-417 .3.0 433, P50 94. 3 686 .01 f, SI .1 plirs AD O. 470,.47 2. 13, 4iNi M.t'14)0 1..7 396, (11) 1, 451 .3 '7,years 462.tt, s). 1 1 .r), 2,V) I 3. 3 114. Sat.24.S 330. 528 2. 049 .44 6) el 9 8 I 4 i 47.13... years Sti. S 2 14, 21t; r..1. 1731:t3. 305. 936 041 . 2, 043 .42 ,. .9 _ I 4.r.o ears s 2. 10. '263 ISO, 745i42.1 248. 204 I 55. 09 2, 076 .46

10) . ._ . . ears 4.i11. '2 3 10,;.16:t 2 ( 233.174 .!,04si:9i 2r.'2.275 n 2. 065 .42 1. 4i:t 11 tI1:; ye3rs.... . 01 17VS`2 1-3 .7.in 4)90!pl. 3 5s)5, r2 I 43. P 5. 707 .42 s !%s lJ rITZ 14 and 15ycar:. ,729 4 2 S.11S . 9 S. 9 352, 713 4. 094 .45 :t V lip! 17 f.:m..it .. 441. .9 41. alo .78 518. sir2.61. 7 311. 7 3 : :341;1 (175 4, 111 .48 Is -.) r t ;4;t. firs 01,:24.2(.43 7S3 . 76t).:;6. 2 447. S76 3. 5 ! 7, O ..11

! . y. 21 tn 2.yenl -- 1. 7r 043 2 11.4tri .K.) 1. 1.Ci. 7214;4. 4 rim.614 34. 3 ; 11, 301 .64 lo:4f) y yvars._ _ _i.),( 11.242;i I. 10, 269 .A'12 9113, 742tIO. 4 631. 314 3s.4 $9s .to4 31 to35years r I, 34(.0,:tr.' 6. 3 S, 87s . S15. 036'00. 4 1,4,419 38. 4 rb, fTh .5

36 ro4(1 _ 744.'1 years 4Mo -i 1, 37i, I.4 1.4, 72v . 771,.5s1 41 i r.s7,495 42 7 6990 .58 i _ 1 3 . 41 to 45y4 ar 1'49. Oql S. 144 71 A43.7-17VI. 5 Isl. 915 42.3 r 5, 128 .45 4,11.0 . o years._ -.I1, I:%G. 1.17 .14 s, 4.28 -.) 6045 441 " xts, 043 .44:;.1.rt z.V. .45 tui :).- P.)' ,1 tsars.....- SIAfzi7 4.') . !..{41 .7.; 4;rI. 311IA....1 I 401. 21'S 46. 3 St, 724 .43 V,1/I 141years.. 7.%4 -, .- .-. 93o. :At) 4.3 .'pi. 424i. 41'246 2 490 i .Y.) 52. 4; 4.'224 .41 t11 tit7(1 yi .1 . '7 . 1. 'If+ :4'21 4 s 489 7.i 5 I 0. 107.41h 640, 1P1 54. 9 537 .47 i 71 Ilisoears 456, I04 2 1 3,51.'. .I 172.2193., .1-- (I- 64).9 2. st,:f .ti3 ; f4111. 941 i ears... 79, 483 :tS 1188 .S7 25.714,32.:4 :2.3s1(5.1) 697 finop41( 11) 1e, Silt% years .03 41. 1. 4 1,9C2. 28. S 4, f.f1 (.7. 1 is; 2. 7 Ovur1110. _ ___ _ .. :79 (11,2 12 4. 3 KS.:11. 153 54. 8 2r) P. 3 44 unknown. .- CbS, t+S.Ps "3"., tA)S 1. 5 29, 51092. S 17, 967 '211.I 20,410 29 6 ! ..... OR. .0 . Total ..-.21, 389, S42 99. 94 I 199, 4 .9 dr904.824 46- 3 11, 170. 415 4,.2 114,849 fl 1-

I Computed from Annuario EstriciNt ten de Espana,A no XI. 1924-2!)

9. . 4

I. - r =- mig 0.11 0* 68 WORLD ILLITERACY

Indice8 ofliteracyand illiteracy.Theper cent,of literacy foreach age groupin the tablesof data for Bulgariaand Spain isanindex of literacy forthat particulargroup.Wbrkingout from the data indices forother combinationsofage groups orfor the totalpopulation isasimple arithmeticalprocess.Computing indicesfor each of these countriesfor1, the total population;2, the population5 yearsofageandover;and 3, thepopulation10 years' ofageand over,the iesultsare:

=1. Index of literary Age group

Bulgaria , r, spaiu,

a Per rent Per cent Totalpopuation 44.4f) I 5 years of 46.3 age and over 49. r) 1 2 10 years ofage and over. 5.r.6 5:i.25V.

None of these threeindices is essentiallythe bestone.Eaoli lias adefinite value for 14 certainpurposes.The economistinterested in 1 the More productiveand less productivegroupsofanationmay prefer the figure forthetotal population.The schooladminis- trator, interested in knowing what theenrollmeni shouldbe and how promptly theschool ia meetingthe situation forwhich itwas created, will wish thedata for5yearsofageandoverand especially for theagesbetween 5 and15.The worker in thefield of eradicating adult illiteracy willmake betteruseof the index for10yearsofage andoverandmoreparticularly theagesbeyond whichmostpersons donot attendanyschool.For purely comparativepurposes, as It amongnations, that for5yearsofageandoveris inmany ways themost convenient.That for 10yearsofageandoveris more' logical sinceat 10 most children will have been inschool threeor fouryearsand ghould have learnedtoread and write. Ofcourseall of these indicesaremuch less valuablethan the complete data byagegi;;;ups.From the latter,the worker inany ii.jeldfor whom statisticsof illiteracyarevaluablemaytake those thatare mostsignificant from hispoint of view. The " Can write"groupR.The "Can write"groups, as now reported by the nationalcensuses,includepersonsof allstagesof literacyattainment, from those whocanbarely sign theirnames to those of the highestlearning.In additiontogiving data byage groups,the time hascomewhen itseemsessential formost countries tomaid)atleast three, and possiblymore,divisjons of the "Can write"groupandreport, for example, those who have completedan elemenataryschool,asecondary school,or auniversity. The national inventory will thenbemorecomplete and infinitelymorevaluable. o