This report presents a statistical profile of Latino literacy in the United States based on a secondary analysis of the 1976 Survey of Income and Education, the 1979 National Chicano Survey, and the 1980 Census. Overall illiteracy in English for the Hispanic population was 14.7 percent, but the rate varied when the population was broken down by country of origin from 7.8 percent for ethnic Cubans to 18.5 percent for ethnic Mexicans. Rates of illiteracy were higher for immigrants, for older individuals, and for Spanish monolinguals. Illiteracy varied from state to state and steadily decreased as personal income increased. Little difference in literacy was noted between sexes. Illiteracy was found to be the result of school failure in educating Latinos, especially those born in the United States. It is suggested that four areas of concern--language acquisition, barriers to acquisition, adolescent and adult illiteracy, and English literacy requirements--should be stressed as a framework for developing a long-term, comprehensive policy research and analysis agenda. An extensive bibliography is included. (JL)