How is the literacy rate of a country calculated?
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It depends on where you are. Certain countries/states use certain methods and it might not be the same throughout an entire locale.
There’s generally three ways: surveys (either of an individual or head of household often via census), literacy tests, and extrapolation.
Literacy tests are often done in schools on an annual basis.
Extrapolation would be like “well, we see there’s x number of folks with a library card so that must mean there’s x numbers of literate folks” or “x number of people make it to grade 8 so therefore x number of people are literate.”
On a side note, there’s a difference between literacy and literacy skills with the latter being far more important. Someone may be able to read and write but that doesn’t mean they have the ability to truly make sense of what they’re reading or writing and to be able to use it to create, understand, and show an actual proficiency in literacy.
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