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New Study Finds the U.S. Could Be Losing
$2.2 Trillion Annually Due to Low Adult Literacy Rate
Barbara
Bush: 9.09.20
A new
study released today by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and
Gallup examines the impact of adult literacy on the U.S. economy, finding that
the nation could be losing up to $2.2 trillion annually due to low adult
literacy rates. ▬
According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than half of
U.S. adults aged 16 to 74 years old (54% or 130 million people) lack
proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth grade level.
Literacy is linked to better health, higher levels of civic engagement and
higher earnings in the labor market. This new research by Gallup, on behalf of
the Barbara Bush Foundation, quantifies the massive gains in GDP growth within
the U.S. at the state, county and metropolitan levels that could result from
improving adult literacy rates.
“America’s low literacy crisis is largely ignored, historically
underfunded and woefully under-researched, despite being one of the great
solvable problems of our time,” said British A. Robinson, president and CEO of
the Barbara Bush Foundation. “We’re proud to contribute to the collective
knowledge base with this first-of-its-kind study, documenting literacy’s
relationship to equity and economic mobility in the U.S.”
Low literacy prevents millions of adults from fully engaging in
society as parents, workers and citizens, lying at the core of
multigenerational cycles of poverty, poor health and low educational
attainment. Nationwide, low-literate adults struggle to earn a living wage,
participate in the democratic process, and manage their family’s health and
finances simply because they lack the ability to read, write and comprehend.
═════════►
Key findings from the study include:
• Improving adult literacy would have enormous economic benefits.
Bringing all adults to the equivalent of a sixth grade reading level would
generate an additional $2.2 trillion – or 10% of GDP – in annual income for the
country.
• Income is strongly related to literacy. The average annual income
of adults who read at the equivalent of a sixth grade level is $63,000. This is
significantly higher than adults who read at a third to fifth grade level, who
earn $48,000, and much higher than those at the lowest levels of literacy, who
earn just $34,000 on average.
• Economic gains would be high in large metropolitan areas. The
nation’s largest metropolitan areas – including New York City, Los Angeles,
Chicago and Dallas – would all stand to gain at or just above 10% of their GDP
by bringing all adults to a sixth grade reading level. READ MORE ➤➤
Based on 7 readability formulas:
Grade Level: 10
Reading Level: difficult to read.
Reader's Age: 14-15 yrs. old
(Ninth to Tenth graders)
Adult
2020: Assessing the Economic Gains of Eradicating Illiteracy
Nationally & Regionally in the United States, Barbara
Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
2019: Literacy Gap Map, Barbara
Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
2019: Adult Literacy in the United States, NCES 2019-179
2013: OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of
Adult Skills, OECD
2009: Literacy of America's Least Literate Adults, NAAL 2003
2006: Literacy of America's College Students, AIR
2007: Literacy in Everyday Life, NAAL 2003
2003: National Assessment of Adult Literacy, NAAL
2000: Programs for Adults in Public Library Outlets, USDE,
NCES
1992: National Adult Literacy Survey, NALS
State Reports
2017: Indiana Adult Literacy Study, Community
Solutions Inc. for Indiana Library Federation
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