The World has Made Substantial Progress in Increasing Basic Levels of Education
Access to education is now seen as a fundamental right – in many cases, it’s the government’s duty to provide it.
But formal education is a very recent phenomenon. In the chart, we see the share of the adult population – those older than 15 – that has received some basic education and those who haven’t.
In the early 1800s, fewer than 1 in 5 adults had some basic education. Education was a luxury; in all places, it was only available to a small elite.
But you can see that this share has grown dramatically, such that this ratio is now reversed. Less than 1 in 5 adults has not received any formal education.
This is reflected in literacy data, too: 200 years ago, very few could read and write. Now most adults have basic literacy skills.
Dataset
Entity | Year | Share of population with no education | Share of population with at least some basic education |
---|---|---|---|
World | 1820 | 82.81073 | 17.189274 |
World | 1870 | 76.1 | 23.9 |
World | 1880 | 73.3 | 26.7 |
World | 1890 | 70.4 | 29.6 |
World | 1900 | 66.8 | 33.2 |
World | 1910 | 64.4 | 35.6 |
World | 1920 | 61.4 | 38.6 |
World | 1930 | 59.1 | 40.9 |
World | 1940 | 54.1 | 45.9 |
World | 1950 | 51 | 49 |
World | 1960 | 46.3 | 53.7 |
World | 1970 | 39.1 | 60.9 |
World | 1980 | 37 | 63 |
World | 1990 | 28.9 | 71.1 |
World | 2000 | 18.5 | 81.5 |
World | 2010 | 16 | 84 |
World | 2015 | 14 | 86 |
World | 2020 | 13.683269 | 86.316734 |
Data sources
Wittgenstein Center (2023); World Bank (2023); van Zanden, J. et al. (2014)