The chart gives information about estimated global illiteracy rates of males and females
in the year of 2000. As I can
see, there are two major features in this chart.
It is obvious that in all the regions the illiteracy rate of females was higher than that of males.
The differences were minimal in developed countries and Latin America at 1% or 2%, while there were
much larger differences in the other regions between 10% and 20%.
We can also find that the figures for females in three regions were relatively higher, with South
Asia having the largest proportion (55%), followed by Arab States (about 52%) and Africa
(roughly 48%). The percentage in Oceania was nearly twice as high as that in Latin America, with
20% and 12% respectively. There were only 2% of women in developed countries poorly educated.
When it comes to the proportions of men who were not able to read and write, it is clear
that Africa, Arab States and
South Asia had extremely similar data approaching 30%. Besides, the illiteracy rate in Latin America
(10%) was slightly
higher than that in Oceania (roughly 8%), but dramatically larger than that in developed countries
(less than 1%).
Overall, in all the regions men were more likely to get educated than women, and the gaps in
developing countries
were much more considerable.