This paper aims at investigating illiteracy in Brazil in light of measures that deal with the concepts of externalities of literacy and the notion of isolated illiteracy. "Isolated illiterates" are considered those individuals who do not have contact with literate individuals. In order to do such investigation, the profile of literacy rates of the Brazilian population is evaluate based on such concepts, and then the main measures of literacy developed recently are applied. Such profile investigation shows that the Northeast region is the one that presents the worst results in the country, having the largest share of isolated illiterate individuals. In addition to that, the proportion of individuals in households with unmarried heads, without children and without relatives, is strongly associated with the variations in the rankings of the different kinds of illiteracy measures of the Northeastern municipalities.
measures of literacy; proximate literate; isolated illiterate; externalities
