Literacy Services

Program Sites

Current Services

Literacy Facts

Volunteering

Literacy Facts

The problem of illiteracy

Forty percent of adult Americans have trouble reading and writing even simple things. They cannot fill out a job application, read traffic signs, read election ballots or read the prescription on a medicine bottle. They can't understand a bus schedule, a newspaper article, product labels or read a story to a child.

And the problem is getting worse. The United States ranks 49th among 156 United Nations member countries in its literacy rate - a drop of 18 places since 1950. At the same time, the need for good literacy skills is increasing, especially in the workplace.

Illiteracy is a solvable problem. With only 35 to 45 hours of tutoring, an adult can improve his or her reading skills by one grade level. Libraries, community colleges, churches, newspapers, businesses, voluntary organizations, employers, correctional institutions, the national Adult Basic Education Program and community groups all across America are working to help nonreaders become new readers.

Illiteracy costs the United States more than $225 billion a year in lost productivity. It is tied to unemployment, crime, poverty, and family problems.

• 75 percent of unemployed adults have reading and/or writing difficulties.

• 60 percent of all juvenile offenders have problems reading.

• $5 billion is spent each year on welfare and unemployment compensation due to illiteracy.

Businesses spend millions of dollars annually to provide basic skills training for employees whose lack of education can result in low productivity, industrial accidents, lawsuits, and poor product quality.

In addition to the tremendous monetary costs, there are the personal costs experienced by nonreaders and their families who have no access to the joy and knowledge found in books, magazines and newspapers. Youngsters whose parents cannot read are twice as likely as their peers to have difficulty learning to read and write well.

There are no "typical" nonreaders. They can be businessmen, college students, farmers, housewives, truck drivers, engineers, office clerks, nurses' aids, military personnel - anyone. Nonreaders come from all age groups. Forty percent are between the ages of 20 and 39; 28 percent are ages 40 to 59; and 32 percent are over 60.

Nonreaders live in all kinds of neighborhoods. Fifty-one percent of illiterate adults live in small towns and suburbs, 41 percent live in urban areas, and eight percent in rural areas.