But we cannot assume that higher education automatically means a person is literate. The same study says some people at all educational levels will have difficulty with the written word. For example, 11 per cent of those with university education have low reading skills.¹⁰

The problem will just get worse. The Hudson Institute suggested in the late 1980s that the workplace requires greater degrees of literacy.¹¹ As the requirements for literacy go up, so do the costs of low literacy.

How literate are Canadians?

A series of reports, studies, and newspaper articles from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s brought literacy squarely to the public’s attention. Southam News, backed by research from the Creative Research Group, determined that approximately 4.5 million Canadians did not have the tools to read and write simple things or to do arithmetic at the level needed to cope with daily activities.¹²

The Statistics Canada study contains sobering numbers:

• 48 per cent of Canadians aged 16+ have difficulty understanding and using information contained in editorials and articles, as well as instructions (for machinery, equipment, medicine, etc.).
• 47 per cent of Canadians aged 16+ have difficulty extracting and using information presented in forms, job applications, transportation schedules, maps, tables, graphs.