What do Literacy Rates in the 19th Century Really Signify? ‐New Light on an old Problem from Unique Swedish Data*

Abstract

The possibilities to measure literacy during the 19th century are limited. Signatures in marriage registers are sometimes regarded as an international standard, but they are not available for all countries. In international studies, other indicators are used with the implicit assumption that they are comparable to signature rates. That could be extremely misleading. The article presents five different estimates of literacy from various sources in southern Sweden for the period 1820‐1860, that vary from 8‐10% up to 85‐90%. The conclusion is that different sources capture different literacies; a fact which should be much more taken notice of in international comparisons. The paper ends with a plea for closer collaboration between literacy researchers in different countries. *The research has been conducted within the research project Skrivkunniga bönder–jordbruksomvandlingens entreprenörer? (Literate farmers–the entrepreneurs of agricultural change?), financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, grant no. 94‐0351. I am grateful for comments by Harvey J. Graff, Lars Pettersson, the participants at session E06. “Literacy Instruction and Nation‐Building Curriculum” at the XXII Meetingof the Social Science History Association, October 16‐19, 1997, Washington, D.C, and the anonymous referees.