Davao city: Last year’s Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) in the Davao Region showed that 90.3 percent, or nine out of 10 Davaoe±os aged five and older, have basic literacy, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-11) said Monday.

According to Philippines News Agency, the FLEMMS aims to gather data to determine the state of literacy in the country. The agency defines basic literacy as ‘the ability of a person to read and write a simple message in any language or dialect with understanding, and to compute or perform basic mathematical operations.’

Based on the survey, about 4.58 million Davaoe±os aged five and over can read, write, and do basic math, out of an estimated 5.07 million in the same age group. Across the region, Davao City had the highest basic literacy rate at 93.5 percent, followed by Davao de Oro at 91.3 percent. Both places have literacy rates higher than the regional average.

On the other hand, PSA-11 said Davao Occidental has the lowest basic literacy rate at 74.2 percent. In the Davao Region, 7.1 percent of people aged five and older are unable to read or write, while 2.7 percent are classified as having low literacy with basic skills.

The PSA-11 also noted that six out of nine Davaoe±os are functionally literate. Unlike the basic literacy rate, which is calculated for individuals aged five and above, the functional literacy rate is determined for those aged 10 to 64. Functional literacy, the report explained, is a higher level of literacy that includes the ability to ‘read, write, compute, and comprehend,’ such as integrating multiple pieces of information and making inferences.

In 2024, the Davao Region’s functional literacy rate was 66.7 percent, meaning roughly six out of nine individuals aged 10 to 64 were functionally literate. This translates to around 2.77 million individuals out of the estimated 4.16 million Davaoe±os in the same age group.