Brazil registered 8.4 million illiterate em 2025which represents a 4.9% taxa first time the index has been below 5% since 2016. According to data released this Friday (19) by IBGE, the country reduced the total number of people who cannot read or write by 592 thousand compared to 2024, but still concentrates more than half of this contingent (4.8 million) in Northeast region.
Despite the evolution, the country did not meet the target of the National Education Plan (PNE), which predicted the eradication of illiteracy by 2024. While the Northeast records the highest rate, the region Southeast (2.3%) presents the lower illiteracy rate.
The research released by IBGE also points out that illiteracy in Brazil is concentrated in elderly population. People aged 60 or over correspond to 58% of the total illiteratetotaling 4.9 million Brazilians. Without considering this group, the national rate drops to 2.6%. According to IBGE, the result indicates that the younger generations had greater access to schooling in childhood.
For the first time, the illiteracy rate among women aged 60 and over (13.7%) was smaller than that of men (14.1%) in the same age group. In the general average of the population aged 15 and over, women also have a lower illiteracy rate (4.6%) than that recorded by men (5.2%).
Racial inequality
The survey reveals that illiteracy among black or brown people aged 60 or over (20.6%) is almost three times higher than that of white people (7.3%) at the same age. Despite the difference, there were advances: for the first time, more than half (51.3%) of the population black or mixed race aged 25 or over completed high school. Among the whitethis percentage is 64,9%.
A average years of study for Brazilians rose to 10.2 years in 2025. In higher education, racial disparity is accentuated: the proportion of young white men with diploma (6.2%) is more than double that recorded among black or brown people (3,0%).
Among young people aged 14 to 29, the main reason for dropping out or not attending school is need to workcited by 43% of respondents. O Lack of interest in studies appears in second place (25.6%). Among women, factors such as pregnancy (24,7%) e household chores (8.6%) appear as specific obstacles to staying at school.
Already early childhood educationthe regions Norte e North East present the greater lack of vacancies. In the North, 44.5% of children aged 2 to 3 who are out of school do not attend because there are no places or institutions in the locality.
