ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the terms 'literate' and 'illiterate' imprecisely, because giving them a definition that is at once universally valid and easily grasped has long been a bane of educational statisticians. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, pointed out in 1965 that the world map of illiteracy coincided very closely with the world map of poverty. The twenty-five poorest countries show rates of illiteracy in excess of 80 per cent. The rich countries of America and Europe, on the other hand, have achieved almost universal literacy – although, indeed, even that statement will have to be modified. The pattern of inequalities in literacy is of course not a new phenomenon. It was noted within Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. Whereas Sweden and Scotland were respectively 90 and 80 per cent literate, Spain and Italy could boast only 25 per cent.
