Just 9% of Americans can identify the percentage of men who had more than six years of schooling in 1970 from two stacked-column bar graphs representing how many years of schooling men and women in Mexico have had by decade.

Which means that if you create charts and graphs or explain numbers for these folks who are rank high on the numeracy scale, you’ll miss 91% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 65.

That’s according to the 2013 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC. PIAAC is a cyclical, large-scale survey of adult skills, developed and organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The study looks at the level of literacy and problem solving in technology-rich environments, as well as numeracy. The numeracy study tested four areas of adult literacy and numeracy skills, or how well people meet the mathematical demands of daily living in:

1. Quantity and number
2. Dimension and shape
3. Pattern, relationships and change
4. Date and chance

U.S. adults have basic numeracy skills

In the United States, adults weighed in at an average numeracy rate of 253 out of 500. That puts us at level 2, or basic, numeracy skills.

That means that, on average, we can figure out how many layers of candles are packed in a box of 105, with five rows of seven candles per layer. But we struggle to calculate trip expenses at 35 cents a mile plus $40 a day from a motor vehicle logbook with columns for date of trip, odometer readings and distance traveled.

That score also puts us at the bottom of the pack internationally. In the 2013 study, the United States earned:

• Lower overall numeracy scores than the international average
• A higher percentage of low performers than the international average
• Lower numeracy scores than we had in 2003

Worse: Our overall numeracy score has taken a nine-point dive since the 1993 study.
_____

Source: “Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments Among U.S. Adults: Results from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2012,” Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC

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Little confession here: I’m a geek. While you’re out partying on Saturday night, I’m cuddled up with a warm study.

The latest object of my affection is the 2012 edition of the PIAAC, or Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. (The name itself could not be understood by most of the people it surveyed!) ^[1]

The PIAAC is a huge, statistically significant study of adult literacy in developed countries. Every 10 years, the OECD (that’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to us mortals) looks at the literacy skills of adults between 16 and 65.

The average American reads at the 7^th- to 8^th-grade level.

— The Literacy Project ^[2]

In the most recent study, what the researchers found was disheartening …

4% are nonliterate.

Some 4% of Americans (global literacy rate: 3%) have Below Level 1 literacy. That means they are nonliterate. They can’t read well enough to perform activities of daily living in a modern society — let alone to take a literacy test.

Most of them can locate a single piece of information in familiar copy. But most of them cannot review a simple table identifying three candidates and the number of votes they received to identify which candidate earned the fewest votes.

14% have below-basic literacy levels.

14% of Americans (global literacy rate: 12%) have level 1 literacy. That means they can read and write at the below-basic level.

Most of them can identify which candidate earned the fewest votes from a simple table identifying three candidates and the number of votes they received. Most cannot count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales from two paragraphs and a chart of generic drug use in 15 countries.

34% have basic literacy levels.

Half of U.S. adults can’t read a book written at the 8th-grade level.

— Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ^[3]

About one-third of Americans (global literacy rate: 34%) have Level 2 literacy. That means they have the ability to read and write at a basic level.

Most can count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales from two paragraphs and a chart of generic drug use in 15 countries. But most cannot identify the link leading to the organization’s phone number from a website with several links, including “contact us” and “FAQ.”

Note that at this point, we have reached more than half of your audience members.

The people who manage this study are careful not to assign grade levels to these groups, but we can do a little correlating. Here’s what we know:

• Half of U.S. adults can’t read a book written at the 8th-grade level, according to the OECD. ^[4]
• The average American reads at the 7th- to 8th-grade level, according to The Literacy Project. ^[5]
• Medical information for the public should be written at no higher than an eighth-grade reading level, according to the American Medical Association, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

So let’s estimate that the midline here is the break between 7^th- and 8^th-grade reading levels. That means half of U.S. adults read at the 7^th-grade level and below, and half read at the 8^th-grade level and above.

36% have intermediate literacy levels.

More than one-third of Americans (global literacy rate: 39%) have Level 3 literacy. That means they can read and write at an intermediate level.

Most can identify the link leading to the organization’s phone number from a website with several links, including “contact us” and “FAQ.” But most cannot click to the second page of search results from a library website to identify the author of a book called Ecomyth.

12% have proficient literacy levels.

Now we reach the cognitively elite: 12% of Americans (global literacy rate: 12%) have what is now called Level 4/5 literacy. At Level 4, that means they can read and write at a proficient level.

Most can click to the second page of search results from a library website to identify the author of a book called Ecomyth. But most cannot review search results from a library website to identify a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable.

If you write for these proficient readers, you’ll miss 88% of adults in the United States.

2% have high literacy levels.

This year, for the first time ever, PIAAC combined the fourth and fifth literacy levels. That’s because there were no longer enough people at the highest level to count.

“Across all countries, only 2 percent of adults performed at Level 5 on many of the variables in the literacy and numeracy scales,” researchers report. Because of the low number, these are included among the 12% in Level 4/5.

This is the only group that can identify from search results a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable.

Write for these folks, and you’ll miss 98% of your readers!

U.S. literary average: below-basic

Put it all together, and what do you get? Our average literacy score of 270 (global literacy rate: 273) out of 500 puts U.S. adults at Level 2, or below-basic, literacy.

That places the U.S. overall literacy score at lower than the international average. But note that Japan and Finland, at the top of the list, have nothing to brag about.

In this environment, how well are we doing reaching these folks with our blog posts, intranet stories or email newsletters?

As George Bernard Shaw wrote:

“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

Learn more

• Reach all of your readers, even those with low literacy
• Readability helps everyone, even highly literate people
• Get more data from the National Center for Education Statistics

Get more information about national assessment, levels of literacy, the literacy gap, how literacy rates vary among high school students and those ages 15 and under, and English literacy among foreign-born adults from the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education.

^[1] “Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments Among U.S. Adults: Results from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2012,” Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC

^[2] Lisa Marchand, “What is readability and why should content editors care about it?” Center for Plain Language, March 22, 2017

^[3] Valerie Strauss, “Hiding in plain sight: The adult literacy crisis,” Washington Post, Nov. 1, 2016

^[4] Strauss

^[5] Marchand

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What reading grade level should you hit on the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog or other readability indexes?

That depends.

Average? 8^th grade.

The average U.S. adult reading level is 8th grade.

The average U.S. adult reading level is 8^th grade, according to most estimates. For a general audience, then, that’s a good average.

Why so low?

Some 85% of U.S. adults aged 25 and older had completed at least high school in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And 27% had college degrees. Both of those numbers represent all-time highs.

But still, Americans don’t read as well as you might think.

Three literacy scales. 

In 1993, the U.S. Department of Education conducted the first National Adult Literacy Survey, the most comprehensive, statistically reliable source on literacy in the United States. It studied 26,000 U.S. adults, representing 191 million people, on three literacy scales:

The study looks at:

• Prose literacy — the ability to search, comprehend and use information from linear copy, like articles.
• Document literacy — the ability to search, comprehend and use information from nonlinear materials, like maps.
• Quantitative literacy — the ability to identify and perform computations using numbers from printed material.

The results? Nearly half of the Americans surveyed couldn’t read well enough to find a single piece of information in a short publication or make low-level inferences based on what they’d read, according to “Adult Literacy in America” (PDF), a report based on that study.

21% nonliterate

Level: 1. Grades: 1-3.

Number/Percentage of Americans over 16: 40 to 44 million; 21%

These folks aren’t literate enough to perform tasks necessary for functioning in everyday life, according to The National Institute for Literacy’s “The State of Literacy in America: Estimates at the Local, State and National Levels” (PDF).

These folks aren’t literate enough to perform tasks necessary for functioning in everyday life.

Most of them can sign their names, identify a country in a short article, locate one piece of information in a sports article, locate the expiration date on a driver’s license or total a bank deposit entry.

But most cannot figure out eligibility from a table of employee benefits, locate an intersection on a street map, find two pieces of information in a sports article, identify and enter background information on a Social Security card application or calculate total costs of purchase from an order form.

27% below basic

Level: 2. Grades: 4-5.

Number/Percentage of Americans over 16: 54 million; 27%

Most can’t write simple messages or letters.

Most in this group (and Level 1) can’t write simple messages or letters; locate a piece of information when there are several plausible options; or compare and contrast easily identifiable information.

Most, for instance, can’t read a sports article and identify the age at which the swimmer began to swim competitively.

32% basic

Level: 3. Grades 6-8.

Number/Percentage of Americans over 16: 61 million; 32%

Most can’t write a brief letter explaining an error on a credit card bill.

Most in this group (and Levels 1-2) can’t write a brief letter explaining an error on a credit card bill, read a magazine article about a woman and provide two facts that support an inference about her or figure out the price per ounce of peanut butter in a 20-ounce jar costing $1.99.

17% intermediate

Level: 4. Grades 9-10.

Number/Percentage of Americans over 16: 29 to 33 million; 17%

Most in this group can’t contrast two opposing views in a newspaper feature about fuel-efficient cars.

Most in this group (and Levels 1-3) can’t contrast two opposing views in a newspaper feature about fuel-efficient cars, identify a theme or organizing principle in a newspaper column or understand a simplified written explanation of the procedures used by attorneys and judges in selecting juries.

3.5% proficient

Level: 5. Grades 11 and up.

Number/Percentage of Americans over 16: 6 to 8 million; 3.5%

The only group with literacy skills adequate for traditional college study

This is the only group that demonstrated literacy skills adequate for traditional college study — a level that 30% of all U.S. high school students reached in 1940, according to The Odysseus Group’s John Taylor Gatto.

Are you smart enough to write for a 5th grader?

___

Sources: Michael D. Aldridge, “Writing and Designing Readable Patient Education Materials,” Nephrology Nursing Journal, vol. 31, no. 4, July/August 2004, p. 373-377

Kenneth Brownson, “Literacy: A Problem that Managers Must Handle,” Hospital Materiel Management Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1, August 1998, p. 37-47

William H. Dubay, “The Basics of Plain Language,” Impact Information: Plain Language Services, 2005

John Taylor Gatto, “The National Adult Literacy Survey,” The Odysseus Group

Douglas Mueller, “The Fog Index,” Folio:

Robert Longley, “U.S. High School Graduation Rate Hits All-time High,” About.com, July 5, 2004

TJ Larkin & Sandar Larkin, “Most Adults Can’t Understand Our Health Communication,” Larkin Page, No. 54, January 2007

TJ Larkin & Sandar Larkin, “Patients Don’t Remember Doctors’ Instructions,” Larkin Page, No. 78, January 2008

“The State of Literacy in America: Estimates at the Local, State and National Levels” (PDF), National Institute for Literacy, 1998

“What do low literacy and limited English proficiency mean?” U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, FHWA.dot.gov

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Just 12% of Americans read well enough to review search results from a library website to identify a book suggesting that claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable.

Which means that if you write for these proficient readers, you’ll miss 88% of U.S. adults aged 16 to 65. Or so says the 2003 Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).

About the study

PIAAC is a cyclical, large-scale study of adult literacy. It was developed and organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The study looks at numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments, as well as literacy. The literacy study tested:

• Vocabulary
• Sentence comprehension
• Basic passage comprehension

In the United States, the OECD conducted the study in 2011-12. The group tested a nationally representative sample of 5,000 adults between the ages of 16 and 65.

How low can you go?

The results? U.S. adults weighed in at an average literacy rate of 270 out of 500. That puts us at level 2, or below basic, literacy skills.

That means that, on average, we can look at a chart of generic drug use in 15 countries and count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales. But we struggle to review an organization’s website with several links, including “contact us,” and identify which link will lead to the organization’s phone number.

That score also puts us at the bottom of the pack internationally.

Nonliterate

Below level 1: 0-225

Percentage of U.S. adults 16+: 5%

Skills: Locate a single piece of information in familiar copy.

Sample task: Review a simple table identifying three candidates and the number of votes they received to identify which candidate earned the fewest votes.

Below basic

Level 1: 226-275

Percentage of U.S. adults 16+: 14%

Skills: Read relatively short digital, print or mixed copy to locate a single piece of information.

Sample task: Review two paragraphs and a chart of generic medicine usage in 15 countries to count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales.

Basic

Level 2: 276-325

Percentage of U.S. adults 16+: 34%

Skills: Find information that may require low-level paraphrasing and drawing low-level inferences.

Sample task: Review a website with several links, including “contact us” and “FAQ” and identify the link leading to the organization’s phone number.

Intermediate

Level 3: 326-375

Percentage of U.S. adults 16+: 36%

Skills: Click to the second page of search results from a library website to identify the author of a book called Ecomyth.

Sample task: Review an illustration of a flattened box identifying its dimensions, then identify which of four pictures bests represents the assembled box.

Proficient

Level 4/5: 376-500

Percentage of U.S. adults 16+: 12%

Skills: 4: Perform multiple-step operations to integrate, interpret or synthesize information from complex texts, which may require complex inferences.5: Integrate information across multiple dense texts; construct syntheses, ideas or points of view; or evaluate evidence-based arguments.

Sample task: Review search results from a library website to identify a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against generically modified foods are unreliable.

Where we fit in worldwide

Our average literacy score of 270 gives the United States:

• Lower overall literacy scores than the international average
• A higher percentage of low performers than the international average
• A larger literacy gap between lower and higher socio-economic groups than internationally

Worse: Our overall literacy score has taken a three-point dive since 1994.

The only good news in this bleak report: The oldest U.S. adults in the study outperformed the oldest adults internationally in literacy.

What this means for communicators

How do you communicate in an environment where many people can barely read? Write for most people. Learn to increase readability.

And if you’re telling yourself that your audience can read at an 11th-grade level, well, then, you’re probably lying to the person you love most.

Bottom line: Are you smart enough to write for a fifth-grader?

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A “severe literacy deficit” haunts the world’s most developed countries. Between one-quarter and three-quarters of the world’s adults don’t have a “suitable minimum skill level” for coping with the demands of modern life and work.

That’s according to the International Adult Literacy Survey, a large-scale cooperative effort by governments, national statistical agencies, research institutions and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The study included 20 countries, representing more than 50% of the world’s gross domestic product.

Three types of literacy

The study rates three types of literacy on a 500-point scale:

1. Prose literacy — the ability to understand and use information from linear copy, like editorials, news stories, brochures and instruction manuals. Average score across countries: 221 points (Level 1 of 5) to 301 points (Level 3).
2. Document literacy — the ability to locate and use information in nonlinear documents, including job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and charts. Average score across countries: 219 points (Level 1) to 306 points (Level 3).
3. Quantitative literacy — the ability to use numbers in printed materials. Tasks include balancing a checkbook, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan. Average score across countries: 209 points (Level 1) to 306 points (Level 3).

The results?

In 14 out of 20 countries, at least 15% of all adults have only rudimentary literacy skills, researchers say, making it hard for them to cope with the rising skill demands of the information age.

Lowest literacy levels. Chile had the lowest average on all three scales. But it’s not alone. Countries with more than 15% of people at the lowest levels of prose literacy include:

• Australia
• Belgium (Flanders)
• Canada
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• Hungary
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovenia
• Switzerland
• The United Kingdom
• The United States

Highest literacy levels. Sweden had the highest average on all three scales. All told, six countries have fewer than 15% of adults at the lowest level of prose literacy skills:

• Denmark
• Finland
• Germany
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Sweden

But wipe that smirk off your face, Sweden. Even there, in the most literate country in the study, 8% of adults have “a severe literacy deficit.”

Five levels of literacy

The study divides each type of literacy into five levels:

Level 1: very poor. A person with Level 1 literacy, for instance, might not be able to figure out how much medicine to take based on information printed on the package.

Level 2: weak. These folks may have developed coping skills to manage everyday literacy demands. But their low literacy level makes it hard for them to face new demands, such as learning new job skills.

Level 3: basic. These folks have achieved a “suitable minimum” of literacy for coping with the demands of everyday life and work. This is about the skill level required to finish secondary school and get into college.

Levels 4 and 5: good to excellent. These folks have high information-processing skills.

“Even the most economically advanced societies have a literacy skills deficit,” researchers say. “Between one-quarter and three-quarters of adults fail to attain literacy Level 3, considered by experts as a suitable minimum skill level for coping with the demands of modern life and work.”

What can people at different literacy levels do?

Level 1 (0-225)

• Prose: Find the “maximum number of days you should take this medicine” on a label that includes the heading “Dosage” and the phrase “not longer than 7 days”
• Document: Identify from a chart the percentage of teachers from Greece who are women
• Quantitative: Add $50 + $2 on an order form

Level 2 (226-275)

• Prose: Determine what happens when a plant is exposed to temperatures of 14°C or lower in an article with the sentence “When the plant is exposed to temperatures of 12-14°C, it loses its leaves and won’t bloom any more”
• Document: Identify from a chart the year in which the fewest people were injured by fireworks in the Netherlands
• Quantitative:Determine how many degrees warmer today’s high temperature is expected to be in Bangkok than in Seoul using a weather chart in a newspaper

Level 3 (276-325)

• Prose: Figure out how to ensure that a bike seat is in the proper position by reading a page from a bicycle owner’s manual
• Document: Write a brief description of the relationship between sales and injuries based on the information shown in the two graphs
• Quantitative: Add three numbers from two charts to calculate the total amount of energ consumed by Canada, Mexico and the United States

Level 4 (326-375)

• Prose: Write in your own words the difference between a panel and group interview, based on a pamphlet about hiring interviews
• Document: Summarize how oil use changed between 1970 and 1989, based on two pie charts
• Quantitative: Calculate how much money you’d have if you invested $100 at a rate of 6 per cent for 10 years

Level 5 (376-500)

• Prose: List two ways an employee support initiative helps people who lose their jobs in a departmental reorganization, based on an announcement from the personnel department
• Document: Determine the average advertised price for the “basic” clock radio receiving the highest overall score on a page taken from a consumer magazine rating clock radios
• Quantitative: Calculate the total number of kilometers traveled on a trip from Guadalajara to Tecomán and then to Zamora using a distance chart

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Let’s start with the bad news: More than half of American adults have basic or below basic prose skills, according to the Department of Education’s latest literacy test.

So how literate is your audience? Get a readability reality check with this slideshow.

Learn to reach all your readers, however well they read. >>>

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