The total adult literacy rate in 2008 was 78%^[188] and this rate goes up to 97.3% when considering only people from 15 to 24 years old.^[189] Education is given a high priority and accounts for 6% of GNP. A basic education for children between the ages of 6 and 16 has been compulsory since 1991. Tunisia ranked 17th in the category of "quality of the [higher] educational system" and 21st in the category of "quality of primary education" in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008–9, released by The World Economic Forum.^[1

Tunisia has a sizable Christian community of around over 35,000 adherents,^[174][175] mainly Catholics (22,000) and to a lesser degree Protestants. Berber Christians continued to live in some Nefzaoua villages up until the early 15th century^[176] and the community of Tunisian Christians existed in the town of Tozeur up to the 18th century.^[54] International Religious Freedom Report for 2007 estimates thousands of Tunisian Muslims have converted to Christianity.^[177][178] Judaism is the country's third largest religion with 900 members. One-third of the Jewish population lives in and around the capital. The remainder lives on the island of Djerba with 39 synagogues where the Jewish community dates back 2,600 years,^[179] in Sfax, and in Hammam-Lif.^[180]