Key Findings from the 2023 PIAAC Study:
- Increased Low Literacy: A substantial jump from 19% (2017) to 28% (2023) of adults performing at the lowest literacy level, struggling with basic reading tasks like understanding simple sentences or short texts.
- Declining Scores: Average literacy scores for U.S. adults dropped 12 points between 2017 and 2023, with similar declines in numeracy.
- Widening Gap: The divide between the highest and lowest-performing adults is growing, as top scorers remain stable while others’ scores fall.
- Functional Illiteracy: Around 45 million U.S. adults read below a 5th-grade level, meaning they have difficulty with everyday reading tasks, notes National University.
Economic Impact: Low literacy is linked to lower earnings, higher poverty, and significant national economic costs, estimated in the trillions, points out ProLiteracy.
Source: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/2023/national_results.asp