Saudi Arabia vs UAE: Who Can Read? 🇸🇦🇦🇪
How many adults can read and write in Saudi Arabia and UAE? Literacy rate of adults (15+), 1975-2026.
Saudi Arabia: can read: 3.0% (1950) → 98% (last survey, 2024) → 98% (2026, estimate)
UAE: can read: 54% (1975) → 99% (last survey, 2024) → 99% (2026, estimate)
What the number means: 80% = 80 of every 100 adults can read and write a simple sentence. The other 20 cannot read a letter, a medicine label or a ballot paper.
Literacy rises fastest when children go to school; the oldest generation often stays unable to read, so the last few percent take the longest.
Literacy rate = the share of people aged 15 and over who can read and write a short, simple sentence about their everyday life (UNESCO). Most countries measure it in a census or household survey in which people say whether they can read and write; some use a short test.
Data: average years of schooling (adults 25+, also women and men): UNDP Human Development Report 2025 for 1990-2023 (smoothed with a 9-year local trend to remove one-year jumps from survey changes); 1950-1989 from the Wittgenstein Centre reconstruction, joined smoothly onto the UNDP level; 2024-2100: the change projected by the Wittgenstein Centre (SSP2, 'middle of the road') added to the last UNDP value (labelled 'projection'). Literacy: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (national censuses and surveys) via Our World in Data; after the last survey of a country, the trend of its recent surveys is continued to 2026 (at most 0.8 points a year, labelled 'estimate'); from 1980 on a 5-year average smooths jumps between surveys. Education levels: Wittgenstein Centre Human Capital Data Explorer v3 (2024), estimates to 2020, SSP2 projection after that. Full list of sources and methods in sources_education.txt.
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