placestats

Adult literacy vs. Fixed broadband

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 135 countries, Adult literacy and Fixed broadband rise and fall together at r = +0.60 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.10, which could easily be chance (q = 0.42, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things. Caution: direction is not consistent across regions.

Comparing countries across the middle half of adult literacy, 75.2% to 97.8% of adults, fixed broadband is better by 10.5 per 100 people at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 1.61 per 100 people.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.604p = 8.6e-15 · 135 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.104p = 0.232 · likely range [-0.07, +0.27]
p, allowing for regions0.221standard error 0.074 · 6 regions
Check for luck (q)0.424across 12,497 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Adult literacy · % of adultslink with income +0.73 · high
Fixed broadband · per 100 peoplelink with income +0.88 · proxy

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Adult literacy · % of adults →Fixed broadband · per 100 people →30.6%100%056.4Aruba: 96.8% of adults, 17.5 per 100 peopleAfghanistan: 37.3% of adults, 0.0801 per 100 peopleAngola: 68.2% of adults, 0.363 per 100 peopleAlbania: 97.7% of adults, 24.9 per 100 peopleUnited Arab Emirates: 98.8% of adults, 40.8 per 100 peopleArgentina: 99.1% of adults, 26.1 per 100 peopleArmenia: 99.8% of adults, 20.3 per 100 peopleAzerbaijan: 99.8% of adults, 21.8 per 100 peopleBurundi: 71.3% of adults, 0.0203 per 100 peopleBenin: 51.4% of adults, 0.277 per 100 peopleBurkina Faso: 41.6% of adults, 0.851 per 100 peopleBangladesh: 79% of adults, 8.09 per 100 peopleBulgaria: 98.3% of adults, 37 per 100 peopleBahrain: 97.8% of adults, 17 per 100 peopleBosnia and Herzegovina: 97% of adults, 29.4 per 100 peopleBelarus: 99.9% of adults, 36.3 per 100 peopleBelize: 87.9% of adults, 9.75 per 100 peopleBolivia: 96.7% of adults, 12.1 per 100 peopleBrazil: 94.7% of adults, 24.1 per 100 peopleBrunei Darussalam: 96.1% of adults, 21.2 per 100 peopleBhutan: 64.9% of adults, 2.92 per 100 peopleCentral African Republic: 42.4% of adults, 0.0161 per 100 peopleChile: 96.4% of adults, 23.7 per 100 peopleChina: 96.7% of adults, 47.2 per 100 peopleCote d'Ivoire: 50% of adults, 1.6 per 100 peopleCameroon: 72.6% of adults, 2.13 per 100 peopleCongo, Dem. Rep.: 68.5% of adults, 0.032 per 100 peopleColombia: 95.3% of adults, 17.2 per 100 peopleComoros: 75.6% of adults, 0.388 per 100 peopleCabo Verde: 88.5% of adults, 8.31 per 100 peopleCosta Rica: 97.4% of adults, 23.3 per 100 peopleCayman Islands: 98.9% of adults, 56.4 per 100 peopleCyprus: 98.7% of adults, 37.6 per 100 peopleDominican Republic: 94% of adults, 11.2 per 100 peopleEcuador: 93.5% of adults, 17.2 per 100 peopleEgypt, Arab Rep.: 79.5% of adults, 11.7 per 100 peopleSpain: 99.7% of adults, 39.2 per 100 peopleEstonia: 99.9% of adults, 35.4 per 100 peopleEthiopia: 60.5% of adults, 0.594 per 100 peopleGabon: 88.9% of adults, 4.69 per 100 peopleGeorgia: 99.7% of adults, 30.4 per 100 peopleGhana: 76.5% of adults, 0.665 per 100 peopleGuinea: 39.6% of adults, 0.00628 per 100 peopleGambia, The: 51.6% of adults, 0.519 per 100 peopleGuinea-Bissau: 63.9% of adults, 0.386 per 100 peopleGuatemala: 82.1% of adults, 5.34 per 100 peopleGuyana: 85.6% of adults, 12.9 per 100 peopleHonduras: 88.3% of adults, 4.58 per 100 peopleHaiti: 68% of adults, 0.307 per 100 peopleIndonesia: 96% of adults, 4.92 per 100 peopleIndia: 78.2% of adults, 3.15 per 100 peopleIran, Islamic Rep.: 88.9% of adults, 12.1 per 100 peopleIraq: 84.1% of adults, 17.6 per 100 peopleItaly: 99.3% of adults, 31.8 per 100 peopleJordan: 94.4% of adults, 7.02 per 100 peopleCambodia: 71.9% of adults, 4.15 per 100 peopleKiribati: 98.6% of adults, 0.0349 per 100 peopleKuwait: 96.5% of adults, 1.01 per 100 peopleLao PDR: 75.6% of adults, 2.72 per 100 peopleLebanon: 92% of adults, 7.29 per 100 peopleLiberia: 59.4% of adults, 0.275 per 100 peopleSri Lanka: 92.7% of adults, 8.47 per 100 peopleLesotho: 90.4% of adults, 0.379 per 100 peopleLithuania: 99.8% of adults, 27.8 per 100 peopleLatvia: 99.9% of adults, 25.8 per 100 peopleMacao SAR, China: 96.5% of adults, 29.9 per 100 peopleMorocco: 64.3% of adults, 7.3 per 100 peopleMoldova: 99.4% of adults, 29.6 per 100 peopleMadagascar: 74.7% of adults, 0.124 per 100 peopleMaldives: 98.2% of adults, 19.6 per 100 peopleMexico: 95.6% of adults, 21.7 per 100 peopleMarshall Islands: 95.8% of adults, 2.35 per 100 peopleMali: 35.6% of adults, 0.774 per 100 peopleMalta: 93.3% of adults, 44.5 per 100 peopleMyanmar: 93.5% of adults, 2.87 per 100 peopleMontenegro: 98.5% of adults, 32.3 per 100 peopleMongolia: 98.6% of adults, 15.8 per 100 peopleMozambique: 61.7% of adults, 0.142 per 100 peopleMauritania: 59.5% of adults, 0.947 per 100 peopleMauritius: 94.3% of adults, 28 per 100 peopleMalawi: 70.2% of adults, 0.0864 per 100 peopleMalaysia: 95.8% of adults, 13.5 per 100 peopleNamibia: 87.6% of adults, 2.83 per 100 peopleNiger: 35.6% of adults, 0.111 per 100 peopleNigeria: 70.4% of adults, 0.0787 per 100 peopleNicaragua: 87.3% of adults, 5.78 per 100 peopleNepal: 68.7% of adults, 10.1 per 100 peopleNaoero: 96.6% of adults, 9.96 per 100 peopleOman: 97.3% of adults, 11.1 per 100 peoplePakistan: 58.9% of adults, 1.47 per 100 peoplePanama: 96.2% of adults, 18.1 per 100 peoplePeru: 93.7% of adults, 11.7 per 100 peoplePhilippines: 98.5% of adults, 7.14 per 100 peoplePalau: 99.8% of adults, 7.33 per 100 peoplePapua New Guinea: 87% of adults, 0.233 per 100 peoplePuerto Rico (US): 92.4% of adults, 28 per 100 peoplePortugal: 94.5% of adults, 45.2 per 100 peopleParaguay: 94.9% of adults, 12.9 per 100 peopleWest Bank and Gaza: 97.9% of adults, 8.16 per 100 peopleQatar: 97.8% of adults, 11.8 per 100 peopleRomania: 99.2% of adults, 35.8 per 100 peopleRussian Federation: 99.9% of adults, 27.1 per 100 peopleRwanda: 78.8% of adults, 0.596 per 100 peopleSaudi Arabia: 97.9% of adults, 44.1 per 100 peopleSenegal: 50.4% of adults, 4.04 per 100 peopleSingapore: 97.7% of adults, 27.8 per 100 peopleSierra Leone: 43.6% of adults, 0.00227 per 100 peopleEl Salvador: 89.8% of adults, 12.5 per 100 peopleSan Marino: 99.9% of adults, 35.8 per 100 peopleSomalia, Fed. Rep.: 54.1% of adults, 0.723 per 100 peopleSerbia: 99.3% of adults, 33.4 per 100 peopleSao Tome and Principe: 87.4% of adults, 2.99 per 100 peopleSuriname: 92.9% of adults, 18.8 per 100 peopleEswatini: 90.8% of adults, 2.51 per 100 peopleSeychelles: 93.9% of adults, 31.6 per 100 peopleSyrian Arab Republic: 94.4% of adults, 6.86 per 100 peopleChad: 30.6% of adults, 0 per 100 peopleTogo: 72.6% of adults, 1.42 per 100 peopleThailand: 91.1% of adults, 14.9 per 100 peopleTurkmenistan: 99.9% of adults, 5.22 per 100 peopleTimor-Leste: 69.4% of adults, 0.006 per 100 peopleTonga: 99.5% of adults, 8.17 per 100 peopleTunisia: 86.3% of adults, 15 per 100 peopleTurkiye: 97.3% of adults, 23.4 per 100 peopleTuvalu: 100% of adults, 4.52 per 100 peopleTanzania: 78.2% of adults, 0.246 per 100 peopleUganda: 77% of adults, 0.208 per 100 peopleUruguay: 98.9% of adults, 33 per 100 peopleUzbekistan: 100% of adults, 34.7 per 100 peopleViet Nam: 96.1% of adults, 23.7 per 100 peopleVanuatu: 88% of adults, 1.16 per 100 peopleSamoa: 98% of adults, 0.878 per 100 peopleSouth Africa: 91.2% of adults, 5.35 per 100 peopleZambia: 71.8% of adults, 0.79 per 100 peopleZimbabwe: 93.2% of adults, 1.94 per 100 peopleCHNCYMKIRKWTMLINERSAUTCDWSM

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.6048.6e-15135
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.7572.2e-26135
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.1040.232135
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.3572.4e-5135

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 135 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.500 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.078 (without GUY) to +0.121 (without CYM). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: GUY (-0.026).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • direction is not consistent across regions

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific23+0.11
Europe & Central Asia23-0.31
Latin America & Caribbean24+0.36
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan18+0.04
Sub-Saharan Africa41+0.10

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third45+0.27
Middle third45+0.34
Richest third45+0.33

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians72+0.04
Muslims42+0.25

By last european coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France22+0.35
Never a European colony16+0.10
Spain18+0.23
United Kingdom42+0.11

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = +0.142 after dropping 5 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 25years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

The link shows up within countries over time (r = -0.299) but mostly disappears in year-to-year changes (r = -0.026). That points to slow trends particular to each country, not the two measures moving together from year to year.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.104for comparison
Within countries+0.354each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.299q = 0.015 · 59 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.026q = 0.758
The direction flips. Comparing each country only with itself gives +0.35. Also taking out what happened to the whole world each year gives -0.30. So the first figure was picking up a trend both measures share with worldwide progress, not a link between them.
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.
  • The association is much weaker in year-on-year changes than in levels, which points to shared country-specific trends.

608 country-years (one country in one year), 59 countries, 2000–2024, about 10 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 4% for Adult literacy, 32% for Fixed broadband. The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.50−0.5-100+10years Fixed broadband trails Adult literacy →lag -10: r = -0.125 (n = 341)lag -9: r = -0.147 (n = 388)lag -8: r = -0.178 (n = 425)lag -7: r = -0.153 (n = 453)lag -6: r = -0.128 (n = 476)lag -5: r = -0.163 (n = 503)lag -4: r = -0.197 (n = 542)lag -3: r = -0.235 (n = 566)lag -2: r = -0.227 (n = 608)lag -1: r = -0.242 (n = 609)lag +0: r = -0.299 (n = 608)lag +1: r = -0.286 (n = 612)lag +2: r = -0.294 (n = 589)lag +3: r = -0.227 (n = 559)lag +4: r = -0.215 (n = 537)lag +5: r = -0.221 (n = 486)lag +6: r = -0.238 (n = 438)lag +7: r = -0.261 (n = 409)lag +8: r = -0.356 (n = 370)lag +9: r = -0.366 (n = 329)lag +10: r = -0.401 (n = 297)

Same year (lag 0): -0.299. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

This curve peaks at the edge of the window (lag +10), so it is still drifting where the search stops. That pattern usually reflects a slow trend left over in the data, not a link with real timing. The peak value should not be read as the “true” link at the right lag.

The data


% of adults
per 100 people		Years
Uzbekistan UZB100%34.72022, 2024
Tuvalu TUV100%4.522022
Russian Federation RUS99.9%27.12021, 2024
San Marino SMR99.9%35.82022
Turkmenistan TKM99.9%5.222022
Latvia LVA99.9%25.82011, 2024
Estonia EST99.9%35.42011, 2024
Belarus BLR99.9%36.32019, 2024
Palau PLW99.8%7.332020, 2023
Armenia ARM99.8%20.32023, 2024
Lithuania LTU99.8%27.82011, 2024
Azerbaijan AZE99.8%21.82023, 2024
Spain ESP99.7%39.22021, 2024
Georgia GEO99.7%30.42024
Tonga TON99.5%8.172023, 2022

World Bank, World Development Indicators
World Bank, World Development Indicators

Sources

Adult literacy

Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above)

UNESCO Institute for Statistics · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Reported only in census or survey years for most countries, so the data are sparse and uneven rather than yearly.

Fixed broadband

Fixed broadband subscriptions (per 100 people)

International Telecommunication Union · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Subscriptions, not people. A household line counts once, however many people use it. A country that went straight to mobile data can be well connected with few of these lines. Internet users, already on the site, is the measure of people.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2010–2024. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 6 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Adult literacy and Fixed broadband

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Adult literacy changes Fixed broadband, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Adult literacy or Fixed broadband