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The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released the data from its latest survey of international education indicators, conducted in 2007. The UIS Data Centre offers annual data for 208 countries and territories from the years 1999 to 2007. The previous survey had data for 207 countries and territories but starting in 2008, Serbia and Montenegro are listed separately, after both countries had declared their independence in 2006. The graph below presents the distribution of the latest UIS data for two official Millennium Development Goal indicators, the primary school net enrollment rate (NER) and the survival rate to the last grade of primary school. The primary NER is available for 178 countries. In 121 countries, the latest data is from 2006. For 10 countries - Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, South Korea, and Vanuatu - the primary NER in 2007 is available. The survival rate to the last grade of primar...

Literacy data published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2007 shows that the lowest adult literacy rates are observed in Africa and South Asia. In some countries, fewer than three out of ten adults can read and write. UIS provides national literacy data for two age groups: youths aged 15 to 24 years, and adults aged 15 years and older. A more detailed analysis of literacy is possible with data from household surveys. Most Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) collect data on literacy for persons between 15 and 49 years. For male household members, literacy data is sometimes collected up to an age of 54, 59, or 64 years. To assess the degree of literacy, respondents to the survey are asked to read a card with a simple sentence. If a respondent can read the whole sentence, he or she is counted as literate, in accordance with UNESCO's definition of literacy as "the ability to read and write, with understanding, a short simple sentence about one’s everyday life...