| Prose | Document | Quantitative | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 341.0 | (5.7) | 339.1 | (5.5) | 332.6 | (6.0) |
| Finland | 336.0* | (5.1) | 341.0* | (6.6) | 323.0* | (7.6) |
| Germany | 328.9* | (12.9) | 344.6* | (10.1) | 344.3* | (15.0) |
| Norway | 326.9 | (3.5) | 341.4 | (4.1) | 331.3 | (5.5) |
| Czech Republic | 325.2 | (6.7) | 348.0 | (8.9) | 354.0 | (9.3) |
| Netherlands | 321.8 | (6.3) | 320.9 | (5.9) | 322.0 | (5.6) |
| Belgiim (Flanders) | 319.3 | (5.0) | 323.3 | (4.4) | 331.5 | (5.7) |
| Portugal | 315.0 | (6.3) | 294.7 | (7.0) | 305.3 | (6.6) |
| United States1 | 313.4 | (2.3) | 312.2 | (1.9) | 310.0 | (2.4) |
| New Zeland | 313.1 | (5.6) | 311.0 | (5.3) | 302.5 | (5.3) |
| Australia | 312.6 | (4.9) | 312.4 | (4.0) | 308.5 | (4.3) |
| Average | 311.0 | (1.3) | 311.4 | (0.9) | 309.2 | (1.2) |
| Canada | 309.9 | (6.4) | 322.6 | (9.1) | 310.9 | (7.8) |
| Ireland | 306.2 | (5.6) | 300.5 | (6.9) | 302.8 | (6.8) |
| United Kingdom | 304.7 | (7.6) | 304.4 | (6.6) | 300.7 | (7.0) |
| Denmark | 303.9 | (4.3) | 327.2 | (6.3) | 321.4 | (6.5) |
| Slovenia | 300.2 | (7.4) | 310.0 | (6.6) | 324.0 | (8.5) |
| Switzerland | 300.0 | (6.1) | 316.1 | (7.3) | 307.5 | (6.7) |
| Italy | 293.3 | (12.0) | 286.2 | (12.7) | 284.6 | (10.2) |
| Poland | 291.5 | (5.7) | 292.1 | (6.3) | 289.5 | (6.6) |
| Hungary | 287.0 | (9.0) | 300.7 | (9.6) | 324.7 | (10.9) |
| Chile | 276.8 | (4.0) | 272.6 | (4.0) | 275.9 | (4.6) |
COUNTRIES ARE RANKED BY PROSE SCORES.
* Unreliable estimate.
1. Values for the United States youth population are derived from the US National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) because a sampling anomaly involving college students limits the comparability of the IALS data for this cohort.
Note: Finland and Germany are excluded from Figure 3 because the data are unreliable.
Source: International Adult Literacy Survey, 1994-1998; US National
Adult Literacy Survey, 1992.