Mongolia has a high literacy rate, consistently rated around 98%. This is a high figure for a country that is often rated as one of the poorest in Asia. For comparison, the World Bank, which supports the above figure, puts Mongolia's more prosperous neighbor China's literacy rate at 91%. Mongolia has benefited from compulsory primary education under the communist regime in the 20th century, continuing in similar form today. The fact that 90% of the population speaks Khalka Mongolian as their primary language may help literacy in that resources can be largely focused on one language. The Mongolian government's non-formal distance education programs also provide opportunities for citizens to learn to read and write.
Mongolian literacy has its start near the beginning of the Mongolian Empire in 1204 when Genghis Khan commissioned the Uyghur scribe Tatar-Tonga to create what became the traditional Mongolian script, or "Mongol Bichig."
Historically most of the Mongolia population could not read. As late as 1934, 55% of communist party members were illiterate.