Pakistan’s youth literacy rate reaches 77%, further improvement in rural women’s literacy; rises to 63% in 2025. According to details, new microdata released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) shows a significant improvement in educational trends among youth in Pakistan. The report states that the literacy rate among youth in the country has now reached 77%. The most prominent aspect emerging from the data is the rapid improvement among young women in rural areas. In this segment, the literacy rate has increased from 54% in 2018/19 to 63% in 2025. This 9 percentage point increase reflects one of the most rapidly progressing sectors in the country’s educational history and is proving to be the main driver of the overall national increase.
The latest HIES/PSLM survey results, analyzed and released by Gallup Pakistan on January 15, 2026, highlight a “silent progress” in the country’s educational landscape. The results indicate that while changes in the national average generally remain slow-paced, the younger generation—particularly those from rural areas—is surpassing previous records. This progress is evident at the national level across both genders. The overall national youth literacy rate has risen from 72% to 77%, while the literacy rate among young men has increased from 79% to 82%. A relatively more significant increase is observed in the literacy rate among young women, which has gone from 64% to 71%. This demonstrates that the attention being given to women’s education is yielding measurable results.
