Evan;

North Korea having nearly a 100% literacy rate is most interesting. The key ingredient to a democratic society is considered to be an educated people. :)

I recall the literacy rate of the South Vietnamese during the 1965-75 period. It was quoted as 46.5%. The average South Vietnamese had never been more than 10 miles from where he/she had been born. We considered that to be a “democratic society”. If you wanted to win an election you placed your name as the number 7 or 11 candidate, as the people were superstitious and loved to gamble.

Now what constitutes literacy is another issue. As an example, during the Mao years in China, if you could read 1200 characters, you were considered “literate”. Is there a standardized measurement for literacy? I doubt it very much as each country will teach its form of reality. Anyone for a “Little Red Book”?

Tom


>Some interesting North Korean stats
>- 5th largest military (30% of GDP spent on this)
>- almost 100% literacy rate
>- 60% of children are malnurished
>
>http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/northkorea/facts.html