This report presents the results of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) that aimed to measure the proficiencies in literacy, numeracy and problem solving of the Canadian population. It focuses on differences within Canada rather than those observed between countries. The IALSS sample is large enough to present the skills distributions of the population of each of the ten provinces and three territories and of specific subpopulations, such as immigrants, Aboriginal people and minority language groups. The report also analyses the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, education, type of work and income, and performance in literacy, numeracy and problem solving.
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Literacy is a continuum
The 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey, like its predecessor, the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey is not a survey aimed at distinguishing those who are “literate” from those who are “illiterate”. There is no arbitrary standard used in the IALSS to distinguish adults who have proficiency from those who do not. The IALSS measures literacy and numeracy along a continuum of proficiency that indicates how well adults use information in today’s society.
Conducted in 2003, the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) is the Canadian component of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills program (ALL). The ALL program is a “… large-scale co-operative effort undertaken by governments, national statistical agencies, research institutions and multi-lateral agencies” that provides internationally comparable measures in four domains: prose and document literacy, numeracy and problem solving (OECD and Statistics Canada, 2005). Over 23,000 individuals aged 16 and over from across the ten provinces and three territories responded to the Canadian IALSS.
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The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Program (ALL)
The development and management of the ALL study were co-ordinated by Statistics Canada and the Educational Testing Services (ETS, Princeton, United States) in collaboration with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the United States Department of Education, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Institute for Statistics (UIS) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The ALL survey, undertaken during the first half of 2003, required all participating countries1 to collect data from a nationally representative sample of at least 3,000 respondents aged 16 to 65 for each language tested – English and French in the case of Canada. The minimum sample requirements for the ALL survey were exceeded in Canada because several federal agencies and provincial governments funded the collection of additional cases so as to ensure high reliability in the estimation of data values for small population groups. Moreover, unlike the 1994 IALS,2 the 2003 Canadian IALSS also benefited from contributions made by territorial governments. As a result, the number of respondents is sufficient to provide accurate estimates for the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut (a complete list of Partners to the IALSS can be found in Annex D). Finally, as with the 1994 IALS, the 2003 IALSS added Canadians over the age of 65 to the sample. Over 23,000 individuals from across Canada spent an average of two hours responding to the IALSS. Annex Table I.3 shows the actual and weighted distributions of respondents from across Canada.