Literacy Rate: Haiti

Analysis# Haiti Literacy Rate Haiti's literacy rate stood at 68.01% in 2017, reflecting significant progress from the nation's 1982 baseline of 34.73%—a cumulative gain of 95.8% over 35 years. The country reached its peak of 73.953% in 2012, six years before the most recent measurement. While the 2017 figure represents a decline from that historical high, it remains substantially above the nation's starting point and demonstrates a clear upward trajectory across the measured period. The most dramatic gains occurred between 1982 and 2003, when the literacy rate jumped from 34.73% to 58.74%—a 25-percentage-point surge in just over two decades. Growth slowed thereafter, with only modest increases from 2003 to 2012. The recent decline of roughly 6 percentage points between 2012 and 2017 warrants monitoring, though the overall trend since 1982 confirms sustained educational progress in Haiti.