International Literacy Day
Since 1967, the annual celebrations of International Literacy Day (ILD) have taken place on 8 September around the world to remind policy-makers, practitioners, and the public of the critical importance of literacy for creating more literate, just, peaceful, and sustainable society.
Literacy is a fundamental human right for all. It opens the door to the enjoyment of other human rights, greater freedoms, and global citizenship. Literacy is a foundation for people to acquire broader knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviours to foster a culture of lasting peace based on respect for equality and non-discrimination, the rule of law, solidarity, justice, diversity, and tolerance and to build harmonious relations with oneself, other people and the planet. In 2023, however, at least one in ten young people and adults still lacked basic literacy skills (). Additionally, millions of children are struggling to acquire minimum levels of proficiency in reading, writing and numeracy, while some 250 million children of 6-18 years old are out of school.
Celebrations in 2025
This year, International Literacy Day (ILD) will be celebrated under the theme of “Promoting literacy in the digital era.”
Digitalisation has been changing ways in which we learn, live, work and socialise, in both positive and negative ways, depending on how we engage with it. While digital tools can help expand learning opportunities for marginalised groups, including 754 million young people and adults who lack basic literacy skills, this digital shift also risks creating double marginalisation – exclusion not only from traditional literacy learning but also from the benefits of the digital age. Digitalisation also raises other concerns, including privacy issues, privacy, digital surveillance, reinforced biases, ethics, the risk of passive consumption, and environmental impacts.
Literacy is a key for making these transformations inclusive, relevant and meaningful. Beyond reading and writing on paper, literacy in the digital era enables people to access, understand, evaluate, create, communicate and engage with digital content safely and appropriately. Literacy is also central for fostering critical thinking, discerning credible information and navigating complex information environments.
On 8 September, ILD2025 will celebrate progress in literacy at the global, regional, national and local levels. It will be an opportunity for critical reflection on what literacy means today, and how literacy teaching and learning, programmes and policies are designed, managed and monitored in this digital era. In addition, ILD2025 will spotlight effective policies and interventions that promote literacy as a common good and a human right – and as a lever for empowerment and transformation to build more inclusive, just and sustainable societies.
Stay tuned for updates, including the venue and agenda of the global celebration!
"The benefits of multilingual education are well documented and evidenced by research. When children are offered education in their household language, more of them attend school, girls from rural areas stay in education longer, and all children acquire better thinking skills. Multilingual education also supports intercultural dialogue, social cohesion and peace. For language is a passport to communication with others: it connects us across cultures; it opens us to new ways of perceiving and interpreting the world; it strengthens understanding within and between peoples."
Young voices: Youth stories for global literacy and peace
Explore how multilingual education has profoundly impacted the development of diverse communities, fostering greater understanding, inclusion, and peace across various cultural landscape in this series of stories written by in SDG4 Youth & Student Network.
What UNESCO does for literacy
News
Discover more international days
World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture - African World Heritage Day - International day against violence and bullying at school including cyberbullying - World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development - International Day of Education - International Day of the Girl - International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust - Human Rights Day - International Day of Light - International Mother Language Day - Nelson Mandela International Day - World Oceans Day - World Philosophy Day - World Poetry Day - World Press Freedom Day - International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition - World Teachers' Day - International Day for Tolerance - International Women's Day - International Day of Women and Girls in Science - World Art Day - World Book and Copyright Day - World Radio Day - World Water Day