Inequality in the distribution of literacy (90th percentile/10th percentile) within countries for prose scale, population aged 26-65, 1994-1998
Legend:
Nations with literacy inequality higher than the United States
Nations with literacy inequality equal to the United States
Nations with literacy inequality lower than the United States
COUNTRIES ARE RANKED BY LITERACY INEQUALITY.
Source: International Adult Literacy Survey, 1994-1998.
Figure 9 shows the proportion of adults aged 45-65 in each country who score at different levels of literacy. People at Level 1 have only rudimentary prose literacy skills, making it difficult for them to cope with the rising demands for literacy skills at work and in everyday life. On the whole, 20 percent of Americans aged 45-65 and 27 percent of Canadians score at this most basic level, compared with 12 percent of Swedes (the highest performing country) and as many as 69 percent of Chileans (the poorest performing country among those tested to date). With 20 percent of older adults at Level 1 on the prose scale, the United States is in a quite similar position as the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and New Zealand. The Canadian figure (27 percent) is close to the average over all the countries (28 percent). The situation is worse in a range of countries. In Chile, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia more than half of all adults between 45-65 years have very poor literacy skills, making it all but impossible for them to participate fully in the knowledge-based economy or the information society. Table 9 in Annex A presents complete estimates of the proportions of the population at Levels 2, 3 and 4/5 on the prose, document and quantitative scales.