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Literacy in Bihar

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Bihar has a total literacy rate of 70.9% in 2017. Overall Male and Female literacy rate is 79.7% and 60.5% respectively. Total Rural literacy rate is 69.5%. In rural areas of Bihar, Male and Female literacy rate is 78.6% and 58.7% respectively. Total Urban literacy rate is 83.1%. In urban areas of Bihar, Male and Female literacy rate is 89.3% and 75.9% respectively. Total number of literates in Bihar is 3,16,75,607 which consists 2,09,78,955 Male and 1,06,96,652 Female. Patna has highest Literacy Rate of 87.82% followed by Rohtas (80.36%) and Munger (78.11%). Kishanganj has lowest Literacy Rate of 61.05% followed by Araria (64.95%) and Katihar (65.46%). A recent survey by Pratham rated the receptivity of Bihari children to their teaching as being better than those in other states. Bihar is striving to increase female literacy, now at 60.5%. At the time of independence, women's literacy in Bihar was 4.22%.

Overview of literacy rates

class=wikitable

|+Literacy rates in Bihar

! !!Total!!Males!!Females

Total Literacy rate

[https://www.thehinducentre.com/resources/article30980071.ece/binary/KI_Education_75th_Final_compressed.pdf#page=68 (NSC Survey 2017)]

|70.9%{{Cite web |title=Times of India Literacy rate of Bihar 2023 |work=The Times of India |date=8 November 2023 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/18-increase-in-literacy-rate-in-over-one-decade/articleshow/105054963.cms}}

79.7%60.5%
Rural areas69.5%78.6%58.7%
Urban areas83.1%89.3%75.9%
Total numbers of literates3,16,75,6072,09,78,9551,06,96,652

class=wikitable

|+Highest and lowest literacy rates by district

!District!!Literacy rate

Rohtas73.37%
Bhojpur72.79%
Patna70.68%
 |
|
|
Katihar52.24%
Purnea51.18%
Sitamarhi51.08%

A recent survey by Pratham rated the receptivity of Bihari children to their teaching as being better than those in other states. Bihar is striving to increase female literacy, now at 60.5%. At the time of independence, women's literacy in Bihar was 4.22%.

The state's low literary rates stem from the region's complex educational challenges.{{clarify|date=March 2025}} Education in Bihar significantly lags behind other states in India.

Growth in Literacy Rate

class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:.6em; text-align:right;"

|+Literacy Rate from 1951–2025{{Cite web |url=http://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/CensusStats-03.htm |title=Census Statistics for Bihar |access-date=2008-10-03 |archive-date=2008-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524094302/http://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/CensusStats-03.htm |url-status=dead }}

!Year

TotalMalesFemales
195113.4522.684.20
196121.9835.858.11
197122.8635.869.86
198131.8647.1116.61
199136.6851.3721.99
200146.9460.3233.57
201161.3571.2051.50
2017{{Cite web |first= |year=2017–18 |title=NSC Report 2017-18 List of Indian States and UT by literacy rate |url=https://www.thehinducentre.com/resources/article30980071.ece/binary/KI_Education_75th_Final_compressed.pdf#page=68}}70.9079.7060.50
202574.30——

Anubhav{{clarify|date=March 2025}}

{{table alignment}}

class="wikitable sortable col1left" style="margin-left:.6em; text-align:right;"

|+Education in Bihar{{Cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/C_Series/Literates_and_educational_level.htm|title = Census of India - Literates and educational level}}

! Level !! Total!! Male!! Female

Literate with education17,15,04911,09,7316,05,318
Below Primary78,90,32947,54,13731,36,192
Primary83,34,70951,30,91732,03,792
Middle43,90,22630,12,15113,78,075
Secondary47,51,56034,39,91813,11,642
Higher Secondary18,26,09313,85,2824,40,811
Technical Diploma24,98920,0884,901
Non-technical Diploma48,53240,4588,074
Graduate & above21,09,41517,37,6513,71,764
Unclassified18,67514,0434,632

Literacy in Districts

class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:.6em;"

|+ Literacy in Biharhttp://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/CensusStats-03.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524094302/http://gov.bih.nic.in/Profile/CensusStats-03.htm |date=2008-05-24 }} Literacy in Bihar

! rowspan="3" |Districts of Bihar

! colspan="3" |2011

! colspan="3" |2001

! colspan="3" |1991

rowspan="2" |Total

! colspan="2" |By gender

! rowspan="2" |Total

! colspan="2" |By gender

! rowspan="2" |Total

! colspan="2" |By gender

Male

!Female

!Male

!Female

!Male

!Female

West Champaran

|55.7

|

|

|39.63

|51.91

|25.85

27.9939.6214.41
East Champaran

|55.79

|

|

|42.74

|67.90

|74.47

44.4158.4985.45
Sheohar

|53.78

|

|

|37.01

|45.54

|27.43

26.1836.3614.34
Sitamarhi

|52.05

|

|

|39.38

|51.02

|26.35

28.4939.8615.49
Madhubani

|58.62

|

|

|42.35

|57.26

|26.56

33.2248.4916.75
Supaul

|57.67

|

|

|37.8

|53.23

|21.02

28.1140.9613.74
Araria

|53.53

|

|

|34.94

|46.5

|22.14

26.1936.9914.01
Kishanganj

|55.46

|

|

|31.02

|42.8

|18.49

22.2233.1210.38
Purnia

|51.08

|

|

|35.51

|46.16

|23.72

28.5238.9216.8
Katihar

|52.24

|

|

|35.29

|45.51

|24.03

28.739.2416.88
Madhepura

|52.25

|

|

|36.19

|48.87

|22.31

27.7239.3114.41
Saharsa

|53.2

|

|

|39.28

|52.04

|25.31

29.9842.3715.83
Darbhanga

|56.56

|

|

|44.32

|54.15

|45.35

35.9448.3120.09
Muzaffarpur

|63.43

|

|

|48.15

|82.19

|87.2

74.1148.4422.33
Gopalganj

|65.47

|

|

|48.19

|63.81

|32.81

34.9651.6217.75
Siwan district

|69.45

|

|

|52.01

|67.67

|37.26

39.1357.5121.33
Saran

|65.96

|

|

|52.01

|67.81

|35.74

41.7960.1822.71
Vaishali

|66.66

|

|

|51.63

|64

|38.14

40.5655.6224.08
Samastipur

|61.86

|

|

|69.76

|80.83

|90.69

60.3776.3985.17
Begusarai

|63.87

|

|

|48.55

|59.71

|36.21

36.8848.6623.52
Khagaria

|57.92

|

|

|41.56

|52.02

|29.62

32.3342.9719.79
Bhagalpur

|63.14

|

|

|50.28

|60.11

|38.83

41.8453.4128.11
Banka

|58.17

|

|

|43.4

|56.28

|29.1

34.5548.1718.99
Munger

|70.46

|

|

|60.11

|70.68

|47.97

52.2564.9537.07
Lakhisarai

|62.42

|

|

|48.21

|60.97

|34.26

39.453.1223.48
Sheikhpura

|63.86

|

|

|49.01

|62.56

|34.13

40.9255.4324.41
Nalanda

|64.43

|

|

|53.64

|66.94

|39.03

46.9561.9529.97
Patna

|70.68

|

|

|63.82

|73.81

|52.17

56.3369.0741.35
Bhojpur

|70.47

|

|

|59.71

|74.78

|42.81

48.1866.3527.95
Buxar

|70.14

|

|

|57.49

|72.82

|40.36

33.4962.9425.74
Kaimur

|69.34

|

|

|55.57

|70.57

|38.9

39.3555.6820.69
Rohtas

|73.37

|

|

|62.36

|76.54

|46.62

48.5264.530.29
Jehanabad

|66.8

|

|

|56.03

|70.9

|40.08

45.8363.1126.81
Aurangabad

|70.32

|

|

|57.5

|71.99

|42.04

45.1461.826.67
Gaya

|63.67

|

|

|61.07

|73.81

|47.4

50.4765.2234.2
Nawada

|59.76

|

|

|47.36

|61.22

|32.64

38.9654.8521.82
Jamui

|59.79

|

|

|42.74

|57.1

|26.92

33.4148.4816.41

Key data

See also

References

External links

Category:Education in Bihar

Category:Literacy in India