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Literacy, Economy and Society: Results of the First International Adult Literacy Survey

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In recent years, adult literacy has come to be seen as crucial to the economic performance of industrialized nations. Literacy is no longer defined merely in terms of a basic threshold of reading ability, mastered by almost all those growing up in developed countries. Rather, literacy is now seen as how adults use written information to function in society. Today, adults need a higher level of literacy to function well: society has become more complex and low-skill jobs are disappearing. Therefore, inadequate levels of literacy among a broad section of the population potentially threaten the strength of economies and the social cohesion of nations.

A large sample of adults (ranging from 1,500 to 8,000 per country) in Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland) and North America (Canada, United States) were given the same wide-ranging test of their literacy skills during the autumn of 1994. This report presents the results. The data paint the most detailed portrait ever available on the condition of adult literacy and its relationship with a host of background and demographic characteristics of European and North American adults.

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