Using the data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), this Data Point summarizes the number of U.S. adults with low levels of English literacy and describes how they differ by nativity status and race/ethnicity. PIAAC is a large-scale international study of working-age adults (ages 16-65) that assesses…

Understanding the health literacy of America's adults is important because so many aspects of finding health care and health information, and maintaining health, depend on understanding written information. Many reports have suggested that low health literacy is associated with poor communication between patients and health care providers and with…

The study used data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress report to examine the relationship for young adults between functional literacy skills and educational attainment. Educational attainment was classified into four categories: less than a high school graduate, high school graduate, some postsecondary education, and college…

By 1979, nonmetro Hispanics trailed Whites and metro Hispanics in rates of high school graduation, college completion, and functional literacy; their relative position for these worsened during the seventies, despite absolute gains. While nonmetro Hispanic school enrollments for ages 3-15 compared favorably with other groups in 1978, 36% of…

Data drawn from 3 cycles of data collection for the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) were analyzed to identify the levels and distributions of literacy skills in the adult populations of 20 countries. The following were among the main conclusions: (1) in 14 of the countries, at least 15% of all adults have literacy skills at only the…