Comment by icegreentea2

Comprehension is a higher bar than "literacy". Global adult literacy rates have been drastically improving since the 1950s (https://ourworldindata.org/literacy). Today, global adult literacy rate is estimated at ~87%.

I -think- this is the appropiate interactive plot: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-reachin...

The controls are annoying, but world level data only goes back to 2000:

* 2000: 38%

* 2005: 41%

* 2010: 45%

* 2015: 47%

* 2019: 48.5% (this is the closest point)