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The United Nations, which defines illiteracy as the inability to read and write a simple message in any language, has conducted a number of surveys on world illiteracy. In the first survey in 1957 at least 44% of the world’s population was found to be illiterate. A 1978 study showed the rate to have dropped to 32.5%, by 1990 illiterate worldwide had dropped to about 27%, and by 1998 to 16%. However, a study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEFT) published in 1998 predicted that the world illiteracy rate would increase in the 21st century because only a quarter of the world’s children got schooling by the end of the 20th century. The highest illiteracy rates were found in the less developed nations of Africa, Asia, and South America; the lowest in Australia, Japan, North America. Using the UN definition of illiteracy, the United States and Canada have an overall illiteracy rate of about 10%. In certain disadvantaged areas, however, such as the rural South in the United States, the illiteracy rate is much higher.