Literacy in China

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, more than 400 million of the country's more than 500 million people were illiterate, and the illiteracy rate was about 80 percent, including over 95 percent in rural areas. In 1964, the results of the second national census showed that the country's total population was 723 million, and the literacy campaign reduced the illiteracy rate (the proportion of illiterate people aged 15 and over) in China to 52%, and about 100 million people became literate. During the Cultural Revolution, the college entrance examination system was suspended, and millions of young people went to the countryside for a month out of each year as part of secondary school.

In 1977, the college entrance examination was resumed during the "rectification of troubles" period. By the end of 1978, China's population was close to one billion, and the illiteracy rate reached 25 percent, with nearly 240 million illiterates and 30–40 percent of young and middle-aged people being illiterate. After the reform and opening, compulsory education and literacy education were included in the newly revised Constitution of the People's Republic of China (82 Constitution) in 1982. In 1986, the Compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of China came into effect, and since then, the nine-year compulsory education has been implemented in mainland China. In 2001, The State Council claimed to have virtually eliminated illiteracy among young and middle-aged people. In the sixth national census in 2010, the total population of mainland China was about 1.34 billion, of which about 54 million were illiterate, with an illiteracy rate of 4.08 percent. According to UNESCO, by 2015, China's illiteracy rate had dropped to 3.6 percent.