NSO’s Report on Literacy Rate

A report on ‘Household Social Consumption: Education’ was published by the National Statistical Office (NSO). It surveyed around 1.13 lakh households across 8,000 villages and 6,000 urban blocks. The data for the report were collected during 2017-18 for the age group of 7 or above. As per the report, smaller states have done better than the developed ones. Kerala topped the list while Andhra Pradesh emerged as the least literate state, standing below Bihar.

Findings of the Report

  • Average literacy rate of the country is 77.7%
  • Kerala scored 96.2% thus has the highest literacy rate among states.
  • Delhi stands at second position with 89% literacy rate.
  • Uttarakhand is at number three with a literacy rate of 87.6% while Assam freezes at number four with 85.9% literacy rate.
  • Andhra Pradesh ranked the worst with 66.4% literacy rate.
  • Karnataka and Telangana have a literacy rate lower than the national average.
  • The national gap between male and female literacy rate is 14.4%.
  • Gap between the male and female literacy rate is lowest in Kerala being 2.2%.
  • The male literacy rate is 84.7% while the female literacy rate is 70.3%, nationally.
  • The state of Kerala has the lowest gap between the urban and rural literacy rates– 1.9%.
  • Bihar and UP are among bottom 5 states with 70.9 % and 73.0% literacy rate respectively.

National Statistical Office (NSO)

NSO is the state statistical agency which is set up by Statistical Services Act 1980. The agency is responsible for collecting and compiling official statistical information on a regular and timely basis.


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