>Only a tiny minority of the working population could read Ancient Greek in Europe in 1800. In England, around 50% of the population were still entirely illiterate at that point in time.
Surely that can't be true? Here in Sweden literacy was made mandatory for adults in 1686. It was not permitted to get married without being able to read.
Surely England can't have been that far behind, as late as 1800ed?
The data you've cited is wrong though. It lists Sweden's literacy rate in 1800 at 21%.
People were interviewed by their local priests to see whether they could read and the results were noted down. From this we know that in the middle of the 1700eds the 70-90% of all people could read.
The law was also clear. You couldn't get married unless you could read. To be married you had to be confirmed, and to be confirmed you had to be able to read.
I don’t particularly care about the specific case of Sweden. Every source I can find for England or Europe in general shows low literacy rates in around 1800. Do you have any sources that disagree? (Note that the map I linked to shows a higher rate for Sweden, if that’s important to you, but still around 50% for England and many other European countries.)
