They had 11 years of compulsory schooling and yet more than 3,000 people aged between 10 and 39 cannot read and write a simple sentence.

Considered illiterate, this group made up almost two per cent of the population born between 1972 and 2001, according to the 2011 census.

The final report of the census was published this week by the National Statistics Office, giving a snapshot of the population, including the level of education.

Shocking as it may sound, the figure did represent an improvement on the 2005 census, which had found more than 4,100 people between the ages of 10 and 39 were illiterate.

Overall, there were more than 24,000 people who could not read and write, the bulk of whom were older than 50. They represented six per cent of the population above 10 years of age. There were more illiterate men than women with the problem being more pronounced in the south.

A geographical breakdown showed that illiteracy was highest in the southern harbour area – which includes the Three Cities, Valletta, Paola and Żabbar – with 6,700 people, or nine per cent of the district’s population unable to read and write.

The rate varied across the different localities within the district with the lowest, at five per cent, in Fgura and the highest, at 14 per cent, in Cospicua.

The southeastern district, that includes Żejtun, Żurrieq, Marsascala and the villages around the airport, had the second highest illiteracy rate at seven per cent. The rate was the lowest in Marsascala, at four per cent, and the highest in Żejtun, at 11 per cent.

The northern harbour district, that includes the Sliema area, had an illiteracy rate of six per cent that varied from a lowly one per cent in Swieqi to 11 per cent in Qormi.

The western district – including Attard, Lija, Mtarfa and Siġġiewi – also had an illiteracy rate of six per cent, ranging from three per cent in Balzan to eight per cent in Żebbuġ.

The northern district that includes Mellieħa, St Paul’s Bay, Mosta and Naxxar, had the lowest illiteracy rate at four per cent. It ranged from a lowly three per cent in Mellieħa to seven per cent in Għargħur.

Gozo had an average illiteracy rate of six per cent with the lowest in San Lawrenz and Għarb at three per cent and the highest in Xewkija and Sannat at nine per cent.

Cannot read and write a simple sentence...

ksansone@timesofmalta.com