Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
I suspect the stats are skewed by immigration and English as a second language households. Sounds like it’s talking specifically about English literacy. I think people tend to underestimate the complexity in standard grade level reading. Think taking Shakespeare in high school and most of the class not really being able to follow. Also consider that a lot of things people read regularly, instruction manuals, news media, billboards, etc. are all designed to target low reading levels to maximize their potential audience.