Investigating Literacy Rates Using Mobile Phone Data

Mobile Phone Data Reveals Literacy Rates in Developing Countries

A machine learning algorithm has learned to tell whether individuals can read or write by analyzing their mobile phone records.

MIT Technology Review | July 13, 2016

One of the millennium development goals of the United Nations is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. That’s a complex task, since poverty has many contributing factors. But one of the more significant is the 750 million people around the world who are unable to read and write, two-thirds of which are women.
There are plenty of organizations that can help, provided they know where to place their resources. So identifying areas where literacy rates are low is an important challenge.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/23/mobile-devices-can-dramatically-improve-literacy-rates-in-developing-countries-says-unesco/

<more at https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601895/mobile-phone-data-reveals-literacy-rates-in-developing-countries/; related articles and links: https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/14/mobile-data-literacy-study/ (Researcher uses mobile phone data to predict illiteracy. People who can't read or write tend to communicate with very few others on their phones. July 14, 2016) and https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/23/mobile-devices-can-dramatically-improve-literacy-rates-in-developing-countries-says-unesco/ (Mobile Devices Can Dramatically Improve Literacy Rates In Developing Countries, Says UNESCO. April 23, 2014)>