The bar chart below shows estimated world illiteracy rates by region and by gender for the last year.

The graphic shows global rates of illiteracy for

last

year broken down by both gender and area. It is evident that there are great discrepancies in literacy rates

according to

both geographic location and sex. What is most striking when looking at the data is the fact that the burden of illiteracy is disproportionately borne by

women

, wherever they hail from. In almost every region on the planet, the number of

women

who cannot read is significantly higher than the number of illiterate

men

; in East Asia and Oceania,

as well as

in the developed countries, it is actually double. Only in Latin America and the Caribbean is there little disparity between the genders in literacy rates. The geographical distribution of education is

also

plain in

this

chart.

Men

everywhere are less likely to be unable to read and write than

women

:

however

, in some parts of the world, extremely significant segments of the whole population are illiterate.

This

is most marked in South Asia, the Arab states and Sub-Saharan Africa where approximately half of all

women

do not possess literacy skills, a lack they share with a third of all

men

. In East Asia, a fifth of

women

and 10% of

men

are uneducated in reading and writing.

This

is in stark contrast with developed countries, where the proportion of illiterates is truly marginal, even though the absolute number of

women

is

nevertheless

double that of

men

.

Overall

, we can see that there are great differences in educational provision across the globe and that (leaving aside Latin America and the Caribbean) the lion's share of illiteracy is given to

women

.