Literacy Facts

22% of adult Canadians have serious problems dealing with any printed materials.
An additional 24% of Canadians can only deal with simple reading tasks.

Western Canada and Ontario generally have higher literacy skills than Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

Less than 10% of Canadians who could benefit from literacy upgrading programs actually enroll. Research indicates that barriers like job or money problems, lack of childcare and transportation are some of the reasons preventing people from enrolling. (Who wants to Learn? ABC Canada Literacy Foundation, 2001)

The proportion of immigrants at the lowest level of literacy is larger than the proportion of those born in Canada who are at this level. However, there are also proportionally more immigrants at the highest levels of literacy.

There is a strong relationship between educational attainment and literacy level. Those with more education have higher literacy skills and those with less education have lower literacy skills. On the other hand, about 20% of Canadians have lower literacy skills than their education might indicate, and 16% have higher skills.

74% of young Canadians who graduate from high school have strong literacy skills. The remaining percentage can handle simple reading and writing tasks. Those who leave school before graduation generally have lower literacy skills.

Canadians with the lowest literacy skills have higher rates of unemployment (26%) and those with the highest skills have lower rates of unemployment (4%).

Canadians with low literacy skills are more likely to have lower incomes than those with higher skills. Over 80% of Canadians at the lowest literacy level and over 60% in the second lowest literacy level have no income, or incomes of less than $27,000.

There is a correlation between literacy and wage levels in Canada. A recent study indicates that each additional year of education a person receives is worth 8.3% on their pay cheque. Using an annual base salary of $30.000, this amounts to an additional $2,490 per year. (Literacy, Numeracy and Labour Market Outcomes in Canada, Statistics Canada, 2001)

A significant number of older Canadians have low literacy skills. 40% of Canadians over 65 have not completed primary school compared to 4% of Canadians between 26 and 35. Poor literacy skills may lower the quality of life for seniors and increase their health and safety risks.
 

Literacy Lingo

These commonly used words and phrases are the preferred ways to communicate information about literacy.
Use low literacy skills instead of illiterate. The word illiterate is no longer used in literacy circles, as it represents only a small portion of the Canadian populations (less than 5%). The term low literacy skills is now used to represent the 5 million adult Canadians (approximately 22% of the population) that have serious problems with reading, writing and math. These are non-readers who have serious difficulty with any printed material.

Use low literacy skills instead of "lack of literacy skills."
Literacy = Grade 8 or under  Upgrading = Grade 9 or over. Taken together they are known as adult basic education.
Use adult basic education instead of adult education.
Refer to people with literacy needs or people with literacy challenges/difficulties.
Refer to programs to improve reading, writing and math not literacy programs.
When speaking to potential learners, refer to reading, writing and math skills not literacy skills.

Literacy Definitions

"The information processing skills necessary to use the printed material commonly encountered at work, at home, and in the community.""Literacy education is part of a process or cycle of lifelong learning, based on life experience, shared knowledge, and decision making by learners supported by their instructors. Literacy education contributes to the development of self knowledge and critical thinking skills. In turn, this development empowers individuals and communities.""Literacy is the ability to read, write, calculate, speak, and understand, as well as sign (for the Deaf) and communicate in other forms of language, according to need. It is a continuum of these skills necessary for everyday life in the home, at work, in education, and in the community."Reading - 22% of Canadian adults can use reading materials to carry out simple reading tasks only in familiar contexts with clearly laid out formats. They do not have the skills to cope with unfamiliar and more complex reading materials. The reading skills of 16% of Canadian adults are too limited to allow them to deal with the majority of written material encountered in everyday life. This percentage covers 5% of people whose abilities are at Level 1(see below) and 2% report that they have no abilities in English or French, for a total of 7% at the lowest level of reading skills. Older Canadians, part-year workers, and workers from primary industries (forestry, agriculture, fishing) are more likely to have reading problems than other Canadians.

Level 1 - People who have difficulty with printed materials and identify themselves as unable to read.
Level 2 - People who can use printed materials for limited purposes such as finding a familiar word in a simple text.
Level 3 - People who can use reading materials in a variety of situations providing it is simple, clearly laid  out and the tasks involved are not too complex.
Level 4 - People who can use a wide range of reading materials and meet most every day reading demands.

Writing - 88% of Canadian adults are able to write a simple message. 2 million Canadians were not included in the Statistics Canada results because they: a) did not have sufficient skills in either French or English, b) had limited skills in French or English, and c) refused to complete the writing tasks.Numeracy - Reading and numeracy skills are closely related. The majority (62%) of Canadians have numeracy skills sufficient to handle the numerical tasks normally encountered in every day life. 24% do not possess the necessary skills to meet most everyday numeracy requirements but can deal with familiar documents that require simple math skills such as addition and subtraction. The remaining 14% of Canadians cannot perform numerical operations consistently but can recognize numbers in isolation or in a short text.