Education is our most valuable resource

The original article can be read as “Schlumpfs graphic 132” in the online Nebelspalter of 18 November 2024.

When the Swedish writer and journalist Lasse Berg visited the family of the Indian farmer Bhagant for the second time in 2010, he was surprised: all of Bhagant’s grandchildren were now going to school, using cell phones, and one girl wanted to become a computer technician. When Berg had visited the family in 1977, none of them had ever gone to school: Everyone, including the children, had to work hard every day so that the family could survive. Within just two generations, this had changed fundamentally: From destitute illiterates, they had become self-confident people with options for the future.

What is important:

– 200 years ago, only one in eight people could read and write. Today, the ratio has reversed: only one in eight is illiterate.
– The majority of people who cannot read live in poor countries in Central Africa.
– Children from high-income countries go to school for around eleven years, in low-income countries it is only around four years.

The hopeful story of the farmer Bhagant, who belonged to the lowest Dalit caste in India, is told by Johan Norberg in his book “Progress” (see here). The story sheds light on the fantastic development in the spread of education and knowledge that we have seen over the last 200 years: More and more children are able to attend school and at least learn to read and write there.

In the following, I draw on articles and graphics from the website “Our World in Data”, in particular the main article “Global Education” (see here). The data for a historical long-term comparison from 1820 onwards comes from the study “How was Life?” by Von Zanden J. et al, which was published by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in 2014 (see here).

Number of years of schooling and reading ability are decisive

To measure educational progress, researchers use two criteria: the number of years children have spent in school and the literacy rate, i.e. the proportion of adults who can read. The picture of development based on these two criteria is fairly consistent over the last 200 years: starting from a situation in which only a few privileged people had access to education, the world is increasingly developing into a place where the vast majority of people can read and write.

I illustrate this development here using the literacy rate. The next graph shows the global percentage of adults over the age of 15 who can read and write (see here):

The brown area (illiterate) shows the percentage of the total population that is illiterate, while the green area (literate) shows the percentage of people who can read and write. Of course, the figures in this graph are based on estimates that become less accurate the further back we look. This can also be seen in the temporal resolution: after 1820, the next estimate is not available until 1870. After that, entries are made every ten years until the year 2000. From 2006 onwards, more precise figures are available on an annual basis. 

The proportion of illiterates has fallen to a seventh since 1820

Over the entire 200 years, the proportion of adults who can read and write has increased sevenfold from 12 to 87 percent: in 1820, an average of one in eight people were literate, in 2022 it was seven in eight. However, the development was not straightforward: there was a slump in 1950 after the Second World War. There were significant dips in 1930 (economic crisis) and above all in 1980 (oil crises). However, literacy became particularly widespread between 1950 (36%) and 2000 (81%).

Many illiterate people still live in Central African countries

However, the remaining 13% of the world’s population who are still unable to read and write today are not evenly distributed across all countries. The next graph shows this literacy rate for all countries in 2018 – the last year for which data is available for almost all countries (see here):

All countries in dark blue have a very high literacy rate of over 95%. They cover most of the world. The literacy rate is noticeably worse in South Asia and especially in Central Africa: in Asia, Afghanistan is ahead with 37%, followed by Pakistan with 57% and India with 72%. The five Central African countries with the lowest number of literate people are: Niger (19 percent), Chad (22 percent), Mali and South Sudan (35 percent), and the Central African Republic (37 percent).

In the Netherlands, less than a fifth of the population was illiterate as early as 1750

But it is not only geographically that there are still major differences; historically, literacy has also spread at different rates. The Netherlands led the way, with an estimated 85% of the population being able to read as early as 1750. A good century later, the United Kingdom followed with 76 percent. However, these were rare exceptions. Most countries only managed to provide their inhabitants with more education in the 19th century. There are no historical figures for Switzerland.

Literacy is affected by poverty and war

The two most important factors that hinder literacy are poverty and war. The following graph shows the dependence of educational opportunities on the economic situation. The graph shows the level of school education in the individual countries in comparison with their income levels in 2020 (see here):

But how is the learning adjusted years of schooling determined? Researchers at the World Bank have used school test results to weight the number of official years of schooling (see here): Where test results were poor, the “learning weighted years of schooling” were shortened and vice versa. In other words, the number of school years shown in the graph (the height of the country bars on the y-axis) is the result of a weighting of the length of regular education and its quality.

In addition, the countries are color-coded according to the World Bank’s classification of income classes: from high income (blue) to two levels of middle income (dark green and light blue) to low income (pink). Finally, the width of the bars indicates how many people under the age of 25 live in that country.

Huge education gap between Singapore and Liberia

The chart clearly shows how high-income countries (blue) enable a high level of education , which in turn promotes prosperity: The leader on the far left is Singapore with 12.8 weighted years of schooling, ahead of Hong Kong, Finland and Japan. Switzerland is on a par with Austria and Russia with 10.9 – ahead of the USA with 10.6.

At the right end of the chart are the low-income countries with weighted years of schooling below 5.0. And at the very bottom, at an even lower level, are the same Central African countries that stood out in chart 2 with the lowest literacy rate: Chad (2.8), Niger (2.7), Mali (2.6) and South Sudan (2.5) – but now with Liberia on the west coast of Central Africa bringing up the rear with 2.2 weighted years of schooling.

India has many more educated young people than China

It is also interesting to compare the two countries with the largest number of young people: At 9.3 years, China has a better level of education than India at 7.1, but with 418 million young people, it has a much smaller pool of young talent than India with 627 million: India therefore still has great educational potential.

Conclusion: Education is probably the most valuable resource we have. Only those who can read and write (and do arithmetic) have the necessary prerequisites for greater prosperity and happiness in life.
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200 years of progress

In 1820, one billion people lived in extreme poverty. War, hunger and death were omnipresent. Then an unprecedented development set in. Today, the earth is populated by eight billion people. Economic output has increased a hundredfold and people are living longer on average than ever before.

Martin Schlumpf explores some key aspects of this history of progress in a series – illustrated, as always, by relevant graphics.

Published so far:

Wealth and prosperity thanks to economic growth: see here
Extreme poverty has fallen sharply: see here
Massive decline in infant mortality: see here
Enough food for everyone: see here
Unplanned happiness: We are getting older and older: see here
Vaccination saves millions of lives: see here
Fewer and fewer war deaths since the Second World War: see here
After all, half of the countries are democracies: see here