Phl literacy rate improves to 97.5% – NSO

MANILA, Philippines - The number of people who can read and write in any language or dialect in the Philippines has risen in 2010 compared to 10 years ago, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The NSO’s 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) showed that of the 71.5 million individuals who are 10 years old and above, 97.5 percent or 69.8 million were literate or could read and write.

This is higher compared to the literacy rate of 92.3 percent recorded in the 2000 CPH.

The statistics agency noted that the literacy rate among females aged 10 years and over in 2010 was at 97.6 percent, while the percentage was at 97.4 percent among males of the same age.

“Among the regions, the NCR (National Capital Region) had the highest literacy rate at 99.7 percent,” the NSO noted.

Aside from the NCR, there were seven regions with its literacy rate higher than the national rate, which are Region IVA or CALABARZON (99.3 percent), Region III or Central Luzon (99.2 percent), Region I or Ilocos Region (99.1 percent), Region V or Bicol Region (98.5 percent), Region VI or Western Visayas (97.9 percent), Region VII or Central Visayas (97.7 percent), and Caraga (97.7 percent).

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had the lowest literacy rate at 82.5 percent.

Among the provinces, excluding the highly urbanized cities, Cavite had the highest literacy rate at 99.6 percent.

In contrast, Sulu had the lowest literacy rate, with 76.6 percent.

The NSO said that of the 38.5 million persons aged five to 24 years old, 64.5 percent or 24.9 million attended school at anytime from June 2009 to March 2010.

“School attendance was higher among females than males,” it said.

Females aged five to 24 years who attended school during the school year 2009 to 2010 comprised 65 percent of all females in this age group, while 64.1 percent of similar age group attended school in the same school year.

By region, the Cordillera Administrative Region had the highest school attendance at 69.4 percent.

ARMM, meanwhile, had the lowest school attendance at 59.3 percent.

The NSO also said Batanes had the highest rate of school attendance among provinces, excluding the highly urbanized cities, at 82.7 percent.

On the other hand, Basilan had the lowest school attendance rate at 52.8 percent.