TJ Walker discusses major global improvements in literacy from 1960 to the present, emphasizing that worldwide adult literacy rose from about 42% in 1960 to roughly 87% today. He highlights the dramatic narrowing of the gender gap (women previously made up about two-thirds of illiterate adults), improvements in primary-school enrollment (near 90%), and downstream benefits of education—smaller families, better health, and stronger economies—while noting some contemporary problems in higher education and media attention biases.
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42%
About 87%
Close to 90%
About 8 to 11%
About two-thirds (2/3)
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As a literate, educated world, especially for girls. In 1960, only 42% of adults worldwide were literate. That's right. Most people couldn't read. According to UNESCO and Our World in data, today literacy is around 87%. So more than double. That's more than 100% increase. Primary school enrollment is close to 90%. Worldwide, only about 8 to 11% of primary age children are out of school. That's a radical improvement from a time when most kids didn't complete basic schooling. Gender education or gender equality in education is one of the biggest breakthroughs. Women once made up about 2/3 of all illiterate adults. The gap has narrowed dramatically as girls school expanded across much of the world. Rosling repeatedly shows that when girls get more education, family sizes fall and incomes rise and then health improves. So this is great news. What's the real message here? As recently as 1960, only 42% of people in the world could read. Today, 87%. That's a huge improvement. Most of all, we've taken young girls and women who were two thirds of the illiterate of the world, and given them a shot at reading and education too. This is huge improvement for all of humanity. Let's dig a little bit deeper here and look at some more facts. As I mentioned, 42%, only 42% literate in 1960. And a lot of nations, not the U.S. but in a lot of nations, you have close to 100% literacy. And those who aren't, often it's not because of opportunities, it's because of other learning disabilities. So that's a huge, huge improvement. These days, it's relatively rare to see kids in factories, working in soccer, you know, making soccer balls. Does it still happen? Yes. But according to United nations research, 90%, almost all young kids today are in some kind of schooling. Now, 200 years ago, 90% of humanity was illiterate. So again, you look at 200,000 years of humanity, basically everyone was illiterate until several hundred years ago. And as recently as 200 years ago, 90% were illiterate. Today it's less than 15%. Women once were 2/3 of all illiterate adults. People thought, well, she's just got to cook and clean. What does she need to learn how to read for? Thankfully, we've gotten past that attitude. And these days, girls are actually surpassing boys and young men in the education department. Now when there is more education, people learn about the birds and the bees and science and biology, so they no longer have 12 kids. This creates a dramatic improvement in the quality of life for people. It also means, thanks to the issue we spoke about earlier, since you don't have to worry about one out of four kids dying, you don't have to have eight children to end up with a handful that live. So with more education means smaller family size. It also empowers economies. There's a direct correlation between education levels in a society and the size of its economy, the wealth of the economy and the wealth of individuals. These are all fantastic things. And yes. Are there excesses in education here in America? Has a lot of higher education turned itself into basically hedge funds and Hermes bags and just trying to manipulate you to get the most amount of money out of you? Yeah, there's all sorts of problems with education, but look at the big picture. The fact that the entire world is now mostly literate and that in society after society, it's not just elementary school education, it's secondary education, it's college education. This is making the world a richer place and a better place for all of it. And it's something that I think any, any human being has to celebrate. Yes, there are the Peter Thiels of the world literally paying people not to go to college, but if you look at all the, the tech entrepreneurs these days telling, oh, don't go to college, it's a waste of time. It typically is coming from people with, with advanced degrees from Stanford, so it worked out well for them. I'm not here to say everybody has to go to college, but I do think everybody needs to learn how to read. And we as a, as a planet, as a species, are much better off because of these extreme advancements that happened like that. When you look at the, the, the history for the last 200,000 years of human beings, it's been amazingly quick. It's, it's just not quick enough to get in today's headlines. It's not enough to get on CNN or the BBC or Fox News. In part, it's a little too gradual for that. And it's not negative news. And unfortunately, as we talked about, that's what drives my most news, is negativity.
