Literacy Rate In Punjab

According to census of India 2011, the literacy rate in Punjab is 75.84% which is better than the national average of 73.0%. The total number of literates in Punjab is 1,87,07,137. The male literacy rate is 80.44% and female literacy rate is 70.73%. The male literacy rate is slightly less than national average of 80.9%. But the female literacy rate in Punjab is better than that of India. The female literacy rate in India is 64.6%. NOTE: Some sites show literacy rate in Punjab as 76.7, but the correct figure is 75.84%. The figure 76.7 was according to the provisional data, it was not the actual figure. The final figure according to official data is 75.8.

Decadal Change In Literacy Rate

During the past decade i.e. from 2001 to 2011, the literacy rate in Punjab has improved by 6.1 percent. It was 69.7 percent in 2001 and it is 75.8 percent in 2011.
Do you know that how literacy rate is calculated? My friends who consider themselves intelligent in Maths will say that its very simple. You can calculate it like (Number of Literates) / (Total Population) x 100, but this is wrong. Instead of total population, the population at the age of 7 years or above is considered to calculate the percentage literacy rate. The population of Punjab having age of 7 years or above is 2.47 Crore, which is used in the calculation of literacy rate.

Literacy Rate by Education Level

A person is counted as literate if he has basic reading skills in any language. In terms of level of education, only 85.14 lakh have the qualification of matric or above and if we consider only such persons as literate then the literacy rate will be 34.5%. The number of persons having qualification level of graduate of above is 17.60 lakh. The below table shows the number of persons according to their qualification level:
Literacy Rate in Punjab By Education Level
Education LevelNumber of Persons (in Lakhs)Literacy Rate
Total Literates18775.84%
Without Education5.662.30
Below Primary22.289.03
Primary42.8817.38
Middle30.6612.43
Matric41.8616.97
Senior Secondary23.109.37
Non-Technical Diploma0.240.10
Technical Diploma2.340.95
Graduate or Above17.607.14
Unclassified0.420.17

Literacy Rate by Residence

The number of literates in rural area is 1.09 crore. This is 71.42% of the total rural population. The rural literacy rate in India is 67.8%. The number of literate people in urban area is 77 lakh. It is 83.18 percent of the total urban population. In India, the urban literacy rate is 84.1%. These figures show that rural literacy in Punjab is higher than the all India average, but it is less in the urban population. The following graph shows a comparison of literacy rate by residence:

Related Pages:
Population of Punjab

District Wise Literacy Rate in Punjab

The district wise list of literacy rate for all 22 districts of Punjab is given in this section. According to this table, highest literacy rate is recorded at 84.6% in Hoshiarpur & Pathankot districts and district Mansa has the lowest literacy rate of 61.8%. See the below table for complete details. The data is sorted in decreasing order of literacy rate.
DistrictLiteracy Rate
Hoshiarpur84.6
Pathankot84.6
Mohali83.8
Jalandhar82.5
Ropar82.2
Ludhiana82.2
Gurdaspur78.0
Nawan Shahr79.8
Fatehgarh79.4
Kapurthala79.1
Amritsar76.3
Patiala75.3
Moga70.7
Faridkot69.6
Firozpur68.9
Fazilka68.9
Bathinda68.3
Sangrur68.0
Tarn Taran67.8
Barnala67.8
Muktsar65.8
Mansa61.8

Frequently asked questions:
Q- Which district has the highest literacy rate in Punjab?
The district of Punjab with highest literacy rate is Hoshiarpur. It has a literacy rate of 84.6 percent, which is almost 10 points higher than the state's average. Hoshiarpur is true to its name as the word 'Hoshiar' literally means 'Intelligent'.
Q - Which is the least literate district in Punjab?
The district of Punjab with lowest literacy rate is Mansa. It has a literacy rate of 61.8%, which is much lower than the state's average.