Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male (number) by country

Name: Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male (number)
Creator: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)

Total number of males over age 15 who cannot both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on their everyday life.

Countries reporting

Highest

90.08 million number

India

Lowest

2 number

Uzbekistan

Median

416,084 number

Years covered

1970–2019

Data points

2,271

What the numbers show

Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male (number) is currently reported for 87 countries. The highest value is 90.08 million number in India; the lowest is 2 number in Uzbekistan.

The median across all reporting countries is 416,084 number, and the mean is 2.65 million number.

Over the past decade 30 countries rose and 57 fell. The largest increase was in Maldives (up 224.1%), and the largest decrease in Uzbekistan (down 99.7%).

Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	India	90.08 million number	2018	down 10.8%	falling
2	Pakistan	19.84 million number	2017	up 8.0%	rising
3	Nigeria	15.90 million number	2018	down 2.9%	rising
4	Bangladesh	13.49 million number	2019	down 44.6%	falling
5	Ethiopia	12.63 million number	2017	up 15.8%	rising
6	China	9.14 million number	2018	down 36.0%	volatile
7	Egypt	7.51 million number	2017	up 15.7%	rising
8	Brazil	5.60 million number	2018	down 20.7%	falling
9	Cote d'Ivoire	3.42 million number	2018	up 12.9%	rising
10	Iran	2.94 million number	2016	down 12.8%	falling
11	Burkina Faso	2.67 million number	2018	up 14.3%	rising
12	Mali	2.66 million number	2018	up 19.1%	rising
13	Indonesia	2.63 million number	2018	down 31.8%	falling
14	Chad	2.60 million number	2016	up 75.5%	rising
15	South Africa	2.43 million number	2017	up 56.4%	falling
16	Tanzania	2.36 million number	2015	up 9.3%	rising
17	Morocco	2.14 million number	2018	down 37.4%	falling
18	Mozambique	2.04 million number	2017	up 7.4%	rising
19	Uganda	1.89 million number	2018	up 46.3%	rising
20	Algeria	1.87 million number	2018	down 15.1%	falling
21	Nepal	1.81 million number	2018	down 21.9%	falling
22	Madagascar	1.75 million number	2018	down 5.9%	rising
23	Mexico	1.68 million number	2018	down 16.1%	falling
24	Benin	1.50 million number	2018	up 13.4%	rising
25	Senegal	1.45 million number	2017	up 0.0%	rising
26	Malawi	1.35 million number	2015	up 27.9%	rising
27	Thailand	1.33 million number	2018	up 41.8%	rising
28	Vietnam	1.28 million number	2018	down 6.5%	falling
29	Cameroon	1.25 million number	2018	up 14.3%	rising
30	Iraq	1.01 million number	2017	down 23.8%	rising
31	Colombia	952,994 number	2018	down 6.4%	flat
32	Rwanda	803,552 number	2018	down 2.0%	rising
33	Burundi	683,416 number	2017	down 32.2%	rising
34	Cambodia	683,262 number	2015	up 16.4%	rising
35	Philippines	646,584 number	2015	down 70.0%	falling
36	Central African Republic	642,926 number	2018	up 8.7%	rising
37	Guatemala	640,073 number	2014	down 21.3%	falling
38	Tunisia	576,320 number	2014	down 5.2%	falling
39	Sri Lanka	549,576 number	2018	down 1.6%	rising
40	Malaysia	477,561 number	2018	down 0.3%	falling
41	Togo	475,642 number	2015	down 1.2%	rising
42	Zambia	437,739 number	2018	down 52.5%	falling
43	Saudi Arabia	426,555 number	2017	down 61.0%	falling
44	Honduras	416,084 number	2018	up 10.3%	flat
45	Ecuador	371,206 number	2017	up 16.7%	flat
46	Turkey	349,418 number	2017	down 62.2%	volatile
47	Peru	337,618 number	2018	down 31.7%	falling
48	Venezuela	311,019 number	2016	down 27.7%	falling
49	Chile	253,918 number	2017	up 76.5%	falling
50	Dominican Republic	229,014 number	2016	down 38.8%	falling
51	Laos	223,768 number	2015	down 23.8%	rising
52	Spain	208,445 number	2018	down 32.4%	falling
53	El Salvador	188,685 number	2018	down 22.6%	falling
54	Argentina	170,377 number	2018	up 15.0%	volatile
55	Paraguay	136,674 number	2018	up 14.2%	falling
56	Qatar	128,489 number	2017	up 63.0%	rising
57	Bolivia	127,417 number	2015	up 4.7%	falling
58	Portugal	109,622 number	2018	down 30.5%	volatile
59	Oman	79,321 number	2018	down 35.2%	falling
60	Kuwait	67,541 number	2018	up 11.2%	falling
61	Greece	65,717 number	2018	down 63.2%	falling
62	Namibia	61,487 number	2018	down 59.0%	falling
63	Panama	61,072 number	2018	down 10.5%	falling
64	Jordan	45,861 number	2018	down 49.1%	falling
65	Eswatini	39,469 number	2018	down 14.8%	falling
66	Mauritius	33,966 number	2018	down 12.9%	falling
67	Singapore	30,462 number	2018	down 32.7%	falling
68	Uruguay	21,206 number	2018	down 19.9%	falling
69	Palestine	20,118 number	2018	down 35.9%	falling
70	Albania	17,818 number	2018	down 41.6%	rising
71	Malta	13,125 number	2018	down 9.5%	falling
72	Kazakhstan	10,561 number	2018	down 14.5%	volatile
73	Vanuatu	10,469 number	2018	down 13.6%	falling
74	Bahrain	10,441 number	2018	down 79.4%	volatile
75	Suriname	8,186 number	2018	up 0.9%	falling
76	Moldova	6,471 number	2014	down 54.0%	falling
77	Maldives	6,430 number	2016	up 224.1%	falling
78	Azerbaijan	5,015 number	2017	down 11.8%	falling
79	Macao	4,593 number	2016	down 33.2%	falling
80	Brunei	3,348 number	2018	down 14.3%	falling
81	Sao Tome and Principe	2,312 number	2018	down 75.3%	volatile
82	Seychelles	1,747 number	2018	down 26.6%	falling
83	Montenegro	1,378 number	2018	down 1.6%	volatile
84	Grenada	597 number	2014	up 13.7%	rising
85	Barbados	440 number	2014	up 6.5%	flat
86	Tonga	212 number	2018	down 34.4%	rising
87	Uzbekistan	2 number	2018	down 99.7%	volatile

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

World 287.65 million number
IDA & IBRD total 274.87 million number
Low & middle income 274.37 million number
Middle income 214.21 million number
Lower middle income 179.92 million number
Early-demographic dividend 174.75 million number
IBRD only 140.21 million number
IDA total 134.69 million number
South Asia 130.41 million number
South Asia (IDA & IBRD) 130.41 million number
IDA only 92.45 million number
Least developed countries 87.76 million number
Sub-Saharan Africa 87.59 million number
Sub-Saharan Africa (IDA & IBRD countries) 87.59 million number
Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income) 87.56 million number
Pre-demographic dividend 78.66 million number
Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) 69.15 million number
Low income 60.16 million number
IDA blend 42.21 million number
Upper middle income 34.29 million number
Arab World 30.43 million number
East Asia & Pacific 25.19 million number
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan 24.44 million number
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan (excluding high income) 23.11 million number
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan (IDA & IBRD) 23.09 million number
Late-demographic dividend 22.89 million number
East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries) 20.51 million number
East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income) 20.51 million number
Latin America & Caribbean 12.59 million number
Latin America & the Caribbean (IDA & IBRD countries) 12.47 million number
Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income) 12.17 million number
Europe & Central Asia 4.12 million number
Small states 1.79 million number
Other small states 1.46 million number
Europe & Central Asia (IDA & IBRD countries) 806,832 number
Europe & Central Asia (excluding high income) 620,351 number
Central Europe and the Baltics 291,123 number
Caribbean Small States 273,589 number
Pacific island small states 53,964 number

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Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male by country. Statizoid, drawing on UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved 29 August 2026, from https://education.statizoid.com/stat/adult-illiterate-population-15-years-male-number/

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About this data

Indicator: Adult illiterate population, 15+ years, male (number)
Unit: number
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 126 places, 2,271 data points, 1970–2019
Last refreshed: 21 August 2026

Total number of males over age 15 who cannot both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on their everyday life.