At both the national and jurisdictional levels, the proportions of the population age 16 and over below Level 3 tend to be higher in the numeracy domain than in either the prose or document literacy domains (Table 1.2).

Text table 1.2

In each of the three domains, the province or territory with the lowest proportion of its population below Level 3 is the Yukon. In the prose literacy domain, for instance, about one-third of the Yukon’s population is below Level 3.

Next are the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan which have slightly larger, yet very similar, proportions of their population below Level 3 in each of the three domains. The Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have proportions of their population with less than Level 3 proficiency that are about the Canadian average.

The differences between Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan and the group of provinces and territories that form the average group are significant, over 4 percentage points, in each of the prose literacy, document literacy and numeracy domains.

With more than 54 percent of their population at Levels 1 and 2 in the prose literacy domain, and higher proportions in the other domains, Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador clearly have a significant proportion of their population aged 16 and over at risk of not being able to fully reach their social and economic potential. As at the national level, the proportions at Levels 1 and 2 are lower when only the population between the ages of 16 and 65 are considered (See Annex A Table 1.7).