U.S. Adults with Low Literacy and Numeracy Skills

A new NCES Data Point report, Adults with Low Literacy and Numeracy Skills in the United States: 2012/14 to 2017, summarizes how the number and percentage of U.S. adults with low levels of literacy and numeracy in English has changed between 2012/2014 and 2017, including those who could not participate because of a language barrier or cognitive or physical inability to be interviewed. Key findings include the following: In 2017, 48 million U.S. adults had low English literacy skills and 69 million adults had low numeracy skills in English, significantly greater than the number of adults with low skills in 2012/2014. The overall percentages of U.S. adults with low skills were not statistically different between 2012/2014 and 2017, in literacy (21 percent in 2012/2014; 23 percent in 2017) or numeracy (30 percent in 2012/2014; 33 percent in 2017). The number of adults that could not participate increased from 8 million in 2012/2014 to 11 million in 2017. The percentage of adults who could not participate in the assessment increased from 4 percent in 2012/2014 to 5 percent in 2017. This report uses data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). PIAAC is a large-scale international study of working-age adults (ages 16–65), conducted in 2011–12, 2013–14, and 2017 in the United States, that assesses adult skills in three domains (literacy, numeracy, and digital problem solving) and collects information on adults’ education, work experience, and other background characteristics.