Mother City has most literate adults in country – survey

‘Rates can be used as an indicator of development’

THE most literate adults in South Africa live in Cape Town, with 98.9% of them being able to read and write in at least one language, Statistics SA says.

Improved access to schooling increased this number, StatisticianGeneral Pali Lehohla said.

“Literacy rates can be used as a key social indicator of development,” Lehohla added during the release of the 2015 General Household Survey.

He explained that adult literacy was not measured according to any specific educational achievement. “That is not necessarily a good reflection of an individual’s literacy ability,” he said.

The question to directly measure literacy required respondents to indicate whether they had any difficulty in reading newspapers, magazines and books in at least one language.

Nelson Mandela Bay followed Cape Town at 98.8%. Next were Johannesburg at 98.7%, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni at 97.7%, with Pretoria following at 97.5%.

“The adult literacy rate lagged behind in provinces like KwaZuluNatal (92.4%), Eastern Cape (90.7%) and in the Northern Cape, where the lowest cases measured 88%,” Lehohla said.

“Slightly less than 8% from metros across the country were either in a university or universities of technology,” Lehohla said.

He revealed that the highest enrolment rates were in eThekwini, with 13%, followed by Mangaung with 12%, while Buffalo City in the Eastern Cape reported that only 3% of people aged 18 to 29 were enrolled at an institution of higher learning.

Lehohla also said there were high levels of people with no schooling in the country.