9 of 10 Filipinos can read, write, compute – PSA survey

The Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), conducted by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), revealed that 90.0 percent or 9 out of 10 Filipinos aged 5 years and above had basic literacy, meaning they can read, write, and compute or perform basic mathematical operations, which translated to approximately 93.07 million of 103.46 million individuals.

Central Luzon (Region III) recorded the highest basic literacy rate at 92.8 percent, followed closely by the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and CALABARZON (Region IV-A) at second and third after tallying 92.7 and 92.6 percent, respectively. The National Capital Region (NCR) settled at fifth at 92.0 percent.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), on the other hand, placed at the lowest rank at 81.0 percent, with Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) and Zamboanga Peninsula (Region IX) rounding up the bottom of the list after scoring 86.4 and 86.1 percent, respectively.

The remaining 10.0 percent of Filipinos aged 5 years and above who did not qualify for basic literacy are marked as low literate at 3 out of 100 individuals or 3.2 percent and illiterate at 7 out of 100 individuals or 6.9 percent, with BARMM also recording the highest proportion of individuals who cannot read and write at 14.4 percent. 

FLEMMS also recorded that 70.8 percent or 7 out of 10 individuals aged 10 to 64 years were functionally literate, meaning they have basic literacy with the addition of a higher level of comprehension skills, which estimates 60.17 million of the 85.00 million individuals.

CAR showed the highest functional literacy rate at 81.2 percent, while Region IX had the lowest at 59.3 percent.

With 93.1 percent having basic literacy and only 70.8 having functional literacy, 2 out of 9 individuals aged 10 to 64 who can read, write, and compute have comprehension difficulties.

PSA conducts the FLEMMS household-based nationwide survey every five years following Executive Order No. 352 of 1996, with the 2024 version marking its seventh round of the study.

FLEMMS provides a quantitative foundation for shaping education and literacy programs, serving as both a reliable baseline and a vital advocacy tool in national policy planning. 

According to a separate press release by PSA in September 2024, the survey utilized Php 208.98 million in collecting data from 720,000 individuals aged five and above across 180,000 households.