1. Literacy Rate Growth Factor

2. Literacy Rate Usually there is a high correlation between the standard of living and the literacy rate (percentage of adults who can read and write). Literacy rates in the Middle East have improved significantly in recent years but are still low by US standards.

3. The Connection Those who cannot read or write have a very difficult time finding decent jobs. Lack of education also prevents many young people from becoming the engineers, doctors, scientists, or business managers that the modern economies need in order to bring improvements to their countries.

4. Education Many parts of SW Asia, particularly those where there tend to be fewer cities and towns, have lower literacy rates than one finds in Europe or the United States. Often schooling is only available to those who can afford to pay to attend. Many countries in this region are working hard to raise literacy rates among young people. Girls tend to have less opportunity to go to school than boys in many areas of SW Asia, a problem these countries are trying to correct.

5. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have a reasonably high standard of living and literacy rate that ranges from a low of 63% in Saudi Arabia to a high of 87% in Turkey. With a per capita income of $28,000, Israel has the highest literacy rate in the Middle East at 97%.

6. Gaza Strip With 80% of its people living below the poverty line, the Gaza Strip manages to have a literacy rate of 92%. The United Nations Committee for Children (UNICEF) has supported education in the Gaza Strip in an effort to offset the unstable, sometimes violent political environment.

7. Afghanistan Afghanistan has been in political turmoil since the mid-1970s. The Taliban, a violent political group, was in power until the United States invaded in 2003. The United States expanded education to include women, whose literacy rate had been less than 3%. Still, the overall literacy rate in Afghanistan is only 28% and the standard of living is roughly $800 per person per year.

8. Iraq Wars in Iraq over the past two decades have hurt both education and the economy. The literacy rate is 74%. Although the government is rich from oil revenue, the income per person in Iraq is estimated to have been only $3600 in 2007.