 |
Adult Illiteracy May Drive $1.4T Loss In
GDP
Politico:
11.14.2019
The
nation could counter those costs with the eradication of illiteracy — bringing
all adults up to a level where they can interpret and infer information from
complex texts — said Jonathan
Rothwell, Gallup’s principal economist.
Rothwell said his findings help quantify a
well-known relationship between
literacy and earnings performance at the individual level and GDP at the
macroeconomic level.
He conducted the analysis of existing data for the
Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and presented the findings on Wednesday at the
foundation’s inaugural National Summit on Adult Literacy.
The foundation also released a map showing literacy
levels by county and the impact of literacy on health and income. More than 36 million adults in the
U.S. lack basic literacy skills, according to the foundation, and there are
many clusters of low-literacy counties in the South, particularly along the
Mississippi River, in western Alabama and from Georgia up through the
Carolinas.
Adult
2019:
Adult Literacy in the United States, NCES 2019-179
2019:
Literacy Gap Map, Barbara Bush
Foundation for Family Literacy
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
