Aécio Amado
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - A 2004 survey found that Brazil's illiteracy rate was 11.4%; that is, 11.4% of the population 15 years of age or older declared that they could not read or write. For the sake of comparison, illiteracy rates in other Latin American nations are: México (9.7%,), Chile (4.3%), Argentina (2.8%) and Cuba (0.2%). In China, the illiteracy rate is 9.1%.

The illiteracy problem was most serious in remote rural areas where the rate rises in some cases to over 25%. In urban areas the rate is 8.7%.

Brazil continues to have enormous regional differences, even in the illiteracy rate. It was highest in the Northeast, reaching 19.4% in the state of Sergipe and 29.5% in Alagoas. The lowest illiteracy rates (below 5%) were in the Distrito Federal (4.2%) and the states of Santa Catarina (4.8%) and Rio de Janeiro (4.8%).

Translation: Allen Bennett