As an expression of a person’s need to record the reality that surrounds them, writing has always been a fundamental characteristic of every civilization. Although the age of written sources is estimated to be over five thousand years, it is astonishing to note that there are currently around 774 million illiterate individuals in the world, or 16% of the population aged 15 and above, meaning that every ninth person is illiterate.
Although each country has its own criteria for defining literacy, it is generally accepted that literacy entails the skill of reading and writing.
The highest number of illiterate individuals is in India, with 28 million. Currently, 57 million children are not attending school. Of the total number of illiterate individuals, two-thirds are young girls and women from underdeveloped countries such as India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Tanzania. The lowest literacy rate is in Mali and Burkina Faso, at around 23%.
In Croatia, according to the latest census from 2011, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics recorded a 0.8% illiteracy rate among the population, which is The number is around thirty thousand people older than 10 years. This is a significant improvement compared to 1953, when illiteracy in Croatia was 16.3%. The majority of illiterate people are over 60 years old, and women make up 82% of the illiterate population compared to the total number of illiterate people.
In 1967, UNESCO established International Literacy Day, which is celebrated on September 8th with the aim of enabling as many children as possible to attend primary school, as well as to educate adults. This day is an opportunity to raise awareness about illiteracy as a global problem because the written word has always connected people from the past, present, and future into a unique humanity.