One thing I haven’t noticed anyone else mention is that the literacy data being referenced here seems to originate from the PIAAC, an organisation that I wasn’t previously familiar with. I was curious about their methodology, since I also thought the quoted rate was shocking. The thing is, according to this FAQ, they only assess in English. So the number of people who are actually illiterate is inextricable from the number of people who are literate in another language, but haven’t learned English yet.
This video is a great discussion of literacy. To put that rate into context, ‘illiterate’ often includes people that can read and write a little bit, but still struggle with some vital or everyday tasks. According to Wikipedia, 20% of US adults have a literacy level at or below level 1 which would be 80 people in this example. This report has a ton of stats and also defines each level of literacy.
Holy shit the literacy rate is kinda shocking…
Do people not like to read? A quarter of the population is fucking NUTS
One thing I haven’t noticed anyone else mention is that the literacy data being referenced here seems to originate from the PIAAC, an organisation that I wasn’t previously familiar with. I was curious about their methodology, since I also thought the quoted rate was shocking. The thing is, according to this FAQ, they only assess in English. So the number of people who are actually illiterate is inextricable from the number of people who are literate in another language, but haven’t learned English yet.
This video is a great discussion of literacy. To put that rate into context, ‘illiterate’ often includes people that can read and write a little bit, but still struggle with some vital or everyday tasks. According to Wikipedia, 20% of US adults have a literacy level at or below level 1 which would be 80 people in this example. This report has a ton of stats and also defines each level of literacy.
Some people didn’t have an opportunity to learn in the first place. Lack of education doesn’t make someone “fucking NUTS”.
85 is a bit high. It would be around 60, and that is the global illiteracy rate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate Still too high though.