Education
Education is where most other inequalities are either reduced or reproduced. Global averages now show near-parity in primary enrolment, while the sharpest gaps sit in adult literacy, secondary completion in the poorest regions, and field of study at university.
Educational information only. Linha de Fala does not provide legal, medical, psychological or other professional advice, and is not an emergency or reporting service.
In short
What is it?
Whether girls can start school, stay in school, and choose what they study.
What do the numbers show?
About 122 million girls of school age are out of school. Around 2 in 3 adults who cannot read are women.
Where is it happening?
The largest numbers of out-of-school girls are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Who is affected?
Girls in low-income households, rural areas and conflict zones are affected most.
Why does it matter?
Years in school shape income, health and the ability to make your own decisions later in life.
What is it?
Educational access covers enrolment, attendance, completion and the quality of teaching received — four different things that are often reported as one.
Barriers rarely have a single cause. Cost, distance, safety on the journey, early marriage, sanitation and household responsibilities combine.
In many high- and middle-income countries women are now the majority of university students, while remaining a minority in specific fields.
Why does it matter?
- Years of schooling correlate strongly with later income, health outcomes and civic participation.
- Literacy gaps among adults today reflect school access twenty to fifty years ago — the effects of exclusion outlive the policy that caused it.
- Interrupted schooling is difficult to reverse, and the consequences follow a person for decades.
The Numbers
122 million
Girls of primary and secondary age who are out of school
≈2 in 3
Share of adults without basic literacy skills who are women
94.7%
Share of the educational attainment gender gap that is closed
Figures on this page are reproduced from the publications listed under Sources. Linha de Fala summarises and explains them; it does not recalculate or estimate them.
Around the World
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- The region with the largest number of out-of-school girls; completion of upper secondary school remains under half for both sexes.Source: UNESCO GEM Report, 2024
- India
- Female youth literacy has risen steeply over two decades, while adult female literacy still trails male literacy by a wide margin.Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
- Brazil
- Girls outperform boys in secondary completion nationally; access differences are sharper by region and income than by sex.Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
- United States
- Gaps appear less in enrolment than in field of study and in student debt burden after graduation.Source: OECD, Education at a Glance 2024
Young Voices
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What Governments Are Doing
- Fee abolitionRemoving secondary school fees is among the policy levers with the most consistently measured enrolment effect.Source: UNESCO GEM Report
- Conditional cash transfersPayments to households conditional on school attendance, used across Latin America and South Asia.Source: World Bank
- School sanitationWater, sanitation and menstrual health provision is increasingly treated as education infrastructure rather than health policy.Source: UNICEF
Data & Sources
Statistics on this page come from reliable international organisations and official datasets. Each statistic includes its original year and source so readers can verify the information themselves.
- Source
- UNESCO
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Global Education Monitoring Report
- Source
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Literacy and education statistics
- Source
- OECD
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Education at a Glance 2024
- Source
- World Economic Forum
- Year
- 2024
- Indicator
- Global Gender Gap Report 2024