Ranking of African countries by literacy rate: Zimbabwe No.1 BELOW IS THE RANKING OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES BY THE LITERACY RATE. THIS ENTRY INCLUDES A DEFINITION OF LITERACY AND CENSUS BUREAU PERCENTAGES FOR THE TOTAL POPULATION, MALES, AND FEMALES. THERE ARE NO UNIVERSAL DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS OF LITERACY. UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED, ALL RATES ARE BASED ON THE MOST COMMON DEFINITION – THE ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE AT A SPECIFIED AGE (15 AND ABOVE). DETAILING THE STANDARDS THAT INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES USE TO ASSESS THE ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE IS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS ARTICLE.

	Country	Literacy Rate
1.	Zimbabwe	90.70
2.	Equatorial Guinea	87.00
3.	South Africa	86.40
4.	Kenya	85.10
5.	Namibia	85.00
6.	Sao Tome and Principe	84.90
7.	Lesotho	84.80
8.	Mauritius	84.40
9.	Congo, Republic of the	83.80
10.	Libya	82.60
11.	Swaziland	81.60
12.	Botswana	81.20
13.	Zambia	80.60
14.	Cape Verde	76.60
15.	Tunisia	74.30
16.	Egypt	71.40
17.	Rwanda	70.40
18.	Algeria	69.90
19.	Tanzania	69.40
20.	Madagascar	68.90
21.	Nigeria	68.00
22.	Cameroon	67.90
23.	Djibouti	67.90
24.	Angola	67.40
25.	Congo, Democratic Republic of the	67.20
26.	Uganda	66.80
27.	Gabon	63.20
28.	Malawi	62.70
29.	Sudan	61.10
30.	Togo	60.90
31.	Burundi	59.30
32.	Eritrea	58.60
33.	Ghana	57.90
34.	Liberia	57.50
35.	Comoros	56.50
36.	Morocco	52.30
37.	Mauritania	51.20
38.	Cote d’Ivoire	48.70
39.	Central African Republic	48.60
40.	Mozambique	47.80
41.	Mali	46.40
42.	Ethiopia	42.70
43.	Guinea-Bissau	42.40
44.	Gambia, The	40.10
45.	Senegal	39.30
46.	Somalia	37.80
47.	Sierra Leone	35.10
48.	Benin	34.70
49.	Guinea	29.50
50.	Niger	28.70
51.	Chad	25.70
52.	Burkina Faso	21.80

Source: The African Economist