“Education does not automatically equal literacy,” says Fosler. “Although literacy rates have improved along with education participation, there still are substantial gaps among countries according to their relative income level and between the sexes.”
These gaps appear to be associated — although it is not clear how directly — with the gaps in access to secondary education. High-income countries enjoy literacy rates approaching 100 percent, and middle-income countries are fast approaching these levels. Literacy rates average about 60 percent in low-income countries and less than 50 percent for women in these countries.
Gaps in education are huge at the college level. In both middle- and low-income countries, less than 22 percent of the college-eligible population actually goes to college. The corresponding share in high-income countries is more than 65 percent. But access to college is changing rapidly. During the next 25 years, these rates could move up to close to 55 percent for middle-income countries.
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