Written question asked by Andrew George (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 17 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 19 January 2006. It was answered by Hilary Benn (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 January 2006 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

Iraq

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the literacy rate has been in Iraq in each of the past four years.

Answer: The best information we have on literacy in Iraq is the ““Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004”” conducted by the Iraqi Central Office for Statistics and Information Technology in April/May 2004. This survey can be found at http://www.iq.undp.org/ILCS/overview.htm.This tells us that two thirds of the adult Iraqi population; 65 per cent. claim to read and write without difficulty, and an additional 10 per cent. can read and write everyday material with some difficulty. In the younger age groups (aged 15 to 24), literacy rates are slightly higher than for the population at large: 71 per cent. claim to read and write without difficulty. There are significant differences in literacy by region and gender. This compares with adult literacy rates of 86 per cent. in Jordan, 75 per cent. in Syria and 53 per cent. in Yemen.Accurate figures for previous years are not readily available, since the last population survey took place in 1997.

Secondary information