The figure of world illiteracy was obtained by

It is estimated that some seven hundred million people are unable to read and write, and there are probably two hundred and fifty million more whose level of attainment is so slight that it barely qualifies as literacy. Recently the attack on illiteracy has been stepped up. A world plan has been drawn up by a committee of UNESCO experts in Paris, as part of the UNESCO Nations Development Decade, and an international conference on the subject has also been held. UNESCO stresses that functional literacy is the aim. People must learn the basic skills of responsible citizenship: the ability to read notices, newspapers, timetables, letters, pricelists, to keep simple records and accounts, to sort out the significance of the information gathered, and to fill in forms. The major areas of illiteracy are in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. There are at least one hundred million illiterates in Africa, comprising eighty to eighty-five percent of the total population. In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million, most of them in Southern Europe, with Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Yugoslavia heading the list.