Rajasthan's much touted improvement in literacy rate has come to a cropper. After a big leap of 22 points between 1991 and 2001, the literacy growth in the last decade was a dismal 6.65 per cent. The literacy rate is lower than the national average in all categories.
According to the census 2011, the male literacy grew at meagre 4.81 per cent in the past decade compared to 21 per cent in the preceding decade while female literacy increased by 8.81 per cent, which is again a poor performance in contrast to almost 20 per cent in the last census. The provisional figures show that close to 39 lakh or 67 per cent people of the total population are literate in absolute terms. The male literacy is 80.51 per cent while the female literacy is 52.66 per cent. Kota once again topped the list with the highest literacy rate of 77.48 per cent while Jaipur came second with 76.44 per cent whereas Jalore registered the lowest literacy rate of 55.58 per cent. Jhunjhunu topped in male literacy while Kota in female literacy.