Education
Literacy Rate
Percentage of population aged 7+ years who can both read and write with understanding in any language. From the decennial Census of India.
Tamil Nadu, latest
80.1%
2011
Change
+9.0%
2001 → 2011
Rank vs compared states
#2 of 5
TN vs MH, KA, GJ, UP · higher is better
Tamil Nadu's Literacy is 80.1% (2011), up +9.0% since 2001. It ranks #2 of 5 compared states (higher is better).
Tamil Nadu's Literacy rose from 73.5% (2001) to 80.1% (2011).
Source: Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner
Compare with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh
- 1 MH Maharashtra 82.3% 2011
- 2 TN Tamil Nadu 80.1% 2011
- 3 GJ Gujarat 78.0% 2011
- 4 KA Karnataka 75.4% 2011
- 5 UP Uttar Pradesh 67.7% 2011
Tamil Nadu highlighted. Each row shows that state's value and the year it is from — compare like years with care.
Where this data comes from
The provenance of every value above and how to cite it.
Source provenance
All observations come from a single source.
Click any segment to open the source publication and verify the values yourself.
Methodology & notes
Census definition: a person aged 7+ who can both read and write with understanding in any language. NFHS uses a different cohort (women aged 15-49) so figures are not directly comparable.
Known series breaks
- 2021: Census 2021 deferred; no fresh decennial estimate available
Alternate sources tracked
- · International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), MoHFW (National Family Health Survey, Round 5 (2019–21))
All values
Every observation, by state and period. Newest first.
Tamil Nadu
- 2011 2011 80.1%
- 2001 2001 73.5%
Maharashtra 2 values
- 2011 2011 82.3%
- 2001 2001 76.9%
Karnataka 2 values
- 2011 2011 75.4%
- 2001 2001 66.6%
Gujarat 2 values
- 2011 2011 78.0%
- 2001 2001 69.1%
Uttar Pradesh 2 values
- 2011 2011 67.7%
- 2001 2001 56.3%
Cross-state comparison (2011)
Sorted high → low. Tamil Nadu highlighted.