Literacy rate — all countries

Literacy rate — Tonga

Literacy rate in Tonga in 2023 — 99.48%. Ranked 4 in the world out of 33. Since 1976, the indicator has fallen by 0.11 pp.

2023 99.48% +8.43 pp vs 2019
World rank 4of 33
Period maximum 99.59%1976
Period minimum 91.05%2019

Trend over time

1976–2023 · % of population aged 15+

Literacy rate — Tonga, 1976–20239092.59597.510019761981198619911996200120062011201620211976: 99.59%1996: 98.91%2006: 99.02%2011: 99.39%2016: 97.15%2019: 91.05%2023: 99.48%
Change over the period: −0.11 pp Annual average: 0 pp

Comparison, 2023

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Tonga

Tonga 99.48%
World 87.58%
Literacy rate — Tonga, by year Tonga All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2023 99.48 —
2019 91.05 —
2016 97.15 —
2011 99.39 —
2006 99.02 —
1996 98.91 —
1976 99.59 —

About the indicator

The share of the population aged 15 and older able to read and write a short simple statement about their everyday life. The UNESCO definition is deliberately minimal — it is the threshold of functional literacy, not an assessment of the quality of education. In most countries the data come from censuses and surveys, so they are updated irregularly.

Important: The series is incomplete: values are published only for the years in which a census or a literacy survey was conducted.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), license CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.