Spatial Analyses of Illiteracy and Unemployment at Governorate Level in Egypt

The objective is to investigate the spatial pattern of each of illiteracy rate (IR) and unemployment rate (UR) and the spatial correlation between these patterns. This study is important for both researchers and policy makers. The study design was cross-sectional data analysis. The present study utilizes census data conducted in Egypt in 2006 for 27 governorates. Mapping was used as the first step to conduct visual inspection for IR and UR. Several spatial econometric techniques are available in the literature, which deal with the spatial autocorrelation in geographically referenced data. Two statistics of spatial autocorrelation, based on sharing boundary neighbours, known as global and local Moran’s , were carried out. Wartenberg’s measure was used to detect the bivariate spatial correlation between IR and UR based on simulation study. The hypothesis of spatial clustering for IR was not confirmed by a positive global Moran’s of .03. While for UR, it was confirmed by a positive global Moran’s of .25 with . The bivariate spatial correlation between IR and UR was found -.19 and . Based on visual inspection of mapping, global clustering was found for IR in western-northern and middle governorates and for UR in eastern-northern and southern governorates. Global clustering was found for UR but was not found for IR based on spatial measure. Out of 27 governorates, two were found as local clusters in each of IR and UR. The bivariate spatial correlation between IR and UR was not found significant.