Europe’s Literacy Levels Around 1900

Posted by vladgrinch

41 Comments

  1. You can clearly see the territories that were under ottoman (Balkans) and russian (eastern Europe) control. Also, the periphery of some central european empires .

  2. JustRemyIsFine on

    sources? I kind of doubt that the Baltics would be so clear-cut, and that German-ruled poland/Russian ruled poland isn’t a significant border.

    A quick search brought up this: [Schooling, literacy and numeracy in 19th century Europe: long-term development and hurdles to efficient schooling – UNESCO Digital Library](https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383171.locale=en), a fascinating read.

  3. And more than 100 years later these are the richer and better functioning parts of the continent…

  4. This map is awful, just use percentage instead, i literally can’t make out what this map is trying to say.

  5. Funny how the Grand Duchy of Finland is defined by the 1945 borders of the independent Finland in a map of 1900 literacy…

  6. Then you wonder why most of philosophers and scientists in the subsequent decades were Germans

  7. I do think its kind of crazy that you can really trace development back 125 years and it still kinda is true today.

    Look at this map and then look at a map of GDP per capita / HDI and they basically mimic each other except for a few small regions.

  8. Sick_and_destroyed on

    Very generous for rural France, the level of illiteracy outside big cities was very high in 1900 because school was made free, mandatory and non religious only in 1882.

  9. I’m always curious about this, how does it feel to not be able to read any language. I can’t even imagine it because to me words just instinctively appear as their written form in my mind

  10. The border between Russia and Finland… while Finland is an autonomous grand duchy in Russian empire

  11. This map plays fast and loose with data points

    Note: Data for historical Germany, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are not available. For mapping purposes, their literacy rates have been estimated to be above 90 %.

    This is really bad for depicting literacy and makes the category above 0,9 basically useless and better served with no data available.

    [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321310015_Regional_human_capital_inequality_in_Europe_in_the_long_run_1850-2010#pf9](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321310015_Regional_human_capital_inequality_in_Europe_in_the_long_run_1850-2010#pf9)
    Here the link for people who want to check up the map. The map is on page 16

  12. SlyDintoyourdms on

    I like how the colour choice makes it accidentally look like there’s somehow a correlation between having a population that is between 70 and 90% literate, and forming larger states.

  13. the rural nordics, and finland, seem a bit suspicious to be that high. did the grand duchy have an autonomous mass public school system ?

  14. Why were protestants in Europe so different from the US? They were the most educated in EU; but they are the least in the US .

  15. Suspicious_Text561 on

    Yeah the sami people is more literacy that the whole Portugal. Very reliable data…