Adult literacy in the United States

The ability to read and understand basic texts is vital in modern society. Though many adults take this skill for granted, it has a deep impact on an individual's ability to participate in society, achieve his or her goals, and fully develop their knowledge and potential. Using the data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this Data Point summarizes the number of US adults with low levels of English literacy and describes how they differ by nativity status and race/ethnicity. One in five adults in the US have low English literacy skills, meaning that they would have difficulty understanding, evaluating, using, or engaging with written texts. On a practical level, this means that they might struggle to compare and contrast, paraphrase, or make low-level inferences. Of the 43 million adults in the US with low English literacy skills, two-thirds of them were born in the US.

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