US Literacy Rate 2025 (Latest Statistics & Data)

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Approximately 79% of adults in the United States have medium to high English literacy skills, leaving about 21%. These 21% of the adults with low literacy rates are approximately 43 million in the country.

Besides, over half of the people in the United States read below the 6th-grade level and one-fifth read below the third-grade level.

This article covers the latest literacy statistics, including the latest facts and figures of adult and child literacy rates and levels.

Literacy Rate in the US 2025: Top Statistics

79% of adults in the United States are literate, and 21% are illiterate.
The US has a national literacy rate of 80.7%.
The average national numeracy rate in the US is 70.8%.
The average illiteracy rate in the US is 19.3%.
More than 43 million adults in the US can not read or write above a third-grade level.
Children of adults with low literacy skills are 72% more likely to have a low reading level in school.
Adults with literacy below the 6th grade are 54%.
14% of the employed population in the US have low literacy skills.
The state with the highest literacy rate is New Hampshire, with a literacy rate of 88.5%.
New Mexico is the state with the lowest adult US literacy rate.
The lowest child literacy rate was in the state of New Mexico.
The highest percentage of literate adults is in New Hampshire state.
The U.S. government bears a cost of up to 2.2 trillion per year for low literacy levels.
The average American is considered literate at the level of a 7th or 8th grader.
1 in 4 children in the U.S. grows up without learning how to read.
It is seen that 2 out of 3 students in the U.S. who can not read correctly by 4th grade end up on welfare or in jail.
Four out of five adults have medium to high English literacy skills.
There are 1 in 6 adults in the US who lack basic reading skills.
Around 36 million adults in the US have limited English, reading, or math skills.
Out of the adults with low English literacy skills, 35% are white, 5% were born outside the US, 23% are black, 34% are Hispanic, and 8 % are from other races.
66% of the average 4th-grade children in the US couldn’t read proficiently.
Children with parents who have low literacy levels are 72% more likely to have a chance of being at the lowest level of the American literacy rate. This leads to the creation of a cycle of poverty and illiteracy.
An increase of 1% in literacy scores leads to a 2.5% rise in labor productivity and a 1.5% rise in GDP.
One in three adults in the US can not handle basic numbers, such as understanding a transit schedule or working a cash register.
23 million foreign-born US residents have limited English proficiency.
The low literacy rate in the United States majorly affects the healthcare industry by $70 million each year.

Literacy Statistics- Child Literacy in The United States 2025 Statistics

Most fourth- and eighth-graders have higher literacy rates in the US today than in 2008 (Digest of Education Statistics for 2018).

Cognitive processes develop in children in the first few years. By age 3, 85 % of the brain is fully developed.

Only 35% of US public school students are proficient in grade 4.
72% of the students are likely to have a low reading level whose parents have low literacy skills.
According to the Children’s Reading Foundation, 2 out of 10 children enter elementary school without proficiency in grade levels.
According to the NCES, 34% of students in the fourth grade lack a basic reading level.

Grade Level Proficiency

NCES reports say around 34% of fourth-grade students are below the basic reading level. And 31% are below the proficient reading level.
Reports from the Children’s Reading Foundation say that students who are behind in literacy rate make only one year’s worth of progress at each grade level. This makes them more likely to repeat the grades.

Child Illiteracy Rate

According to ProLiteracy, 1.2 million teens, or one in six high school students, drop out each year.
Students with low academic performance since kindergarten make up the most significant proportion.

Causes and Effects of Child Illiteracy

Various factors, including the parental and home environment, can cause childhood illiteracy. Living situations are the most critical factor that affects child illiteracy. It can be affected by parental income level, crime, violence, regional location, employment status, etc.

Here are some of the causes that affect literacy

Parental illiteracy: A family history of illiteracy is important for a child’s reading and overall growth. Parents with low literacy levels fail to nurture literacy in their children.
According to Comic Relief US, around 73% of children with parents with low education backgrounds live in low-income settings.
Lack of attention to the reading: According to Literacy Partners, low-income parents are frequently disengaged from their children’s education due to poor financial conditions and job insecurity.
Nonnative status: According to the NCES, around 35% are non-US-born. Many immigrant families find it hard to adopt the English language and education system. This also leads to a lack of proper education, leading to illiteracy.

Effects of Child Illiteracy

Children with low literacy rates will likely receive poor grades, skip school, and exhibit behavioral issues. Illiterate students may feel inept at school, resulting in low self-esteem and isolation. Childhood illiteracy can have a negative effect on adulthood.

Unemployment and low-paying jobs: One in five adults finds it difficult to read and write basic sentences. According to the Washington Post, students with low reading and mathematics skills will likely face unemployment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies rejected adults with low education literacy.
According to the World Literacy Foundation, Illiterate people earn 35% less than literate employees.
Higher rates of incarceration: According to BeginToRead, two-thirds of students who do not have proficient reading skills by the end of fourth grade end up in jail or on welfare. Approximately 85% of young students involved in the juvenile court process are completely illiterate. Additionally, approximately 70% of inmates in U.S. prisons cannot read above the fourth-grade level.
Negative impact on society: According to ProLiteracy, low literacy costs the United States an estimated $225 billion in lost workforce productivity, crime, and lost tax revenue due to unemployment. Illiteracy also adds to the costs of federal and state welfare programs. According to BeginToRead, most welfare recipients are school dropouts, and most food stamp recipients have low literacy levels.

Child Literacy Statistics by State

Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Hampshire had the highest literacy rates in the US.

New Mexico, California, and Texas were the top states in the US with low literacy rates.
Massachusetts ranks first for the states with the most child literacy rates.

Data of top 10 states with child literacy rate and reading proficiency.

State	Rank	Students with Low Reading Proficiency (%)
Massachusetts	1	53%
Maryland	2	55%
New Hampshire	3	55%
Virginia	4	57%
Connecticut	5	57%
Vermont	6	58%
New Jersey	7	58%
Colorado	8	59%
Minnesota	9	59%
Pennsylvania	10	60%

Literacy Statistics-Adult Literacy Statistics in The United States

3 out of 5 inmates in American prisons are illiterate.
85% of young offenders struggle with reading.
About 50% of Americans have reading skills so poor that they cannot complete simple tasks like reading the labels of prescription drugs.
The US ranked twelve in a literacy study across 20 “high-income” nations.
In the US, the problem of illiteracy has gotten so bad that 44 million adults are currently unable to read a simple story to their children.
50% of adults struggle to read books appropriate for eighth grade.
45 million people read at a fifth-grade level or below and seem functionally illiterate.
In the United States, 44% of adults don’t read a book in a year.
3 out of 4 welfare recipients are illiterate.
20% of Americans are illiterate, which is required to make a living wage.
Between 16 and 21, 50% of those without jobs are not functionally literate in reading.
Due to their inability to read, 46 to 51% of American adults have an income significantly below the poverty line.
The estimated annual cost of illiteracy to American taxpayers is $20 billion.

Adult Illiteracy Rate

The median rate of adult literacy in the US is 88%.
Between 2012 and 2017, the PIACC assessed the skills of 12,330 adults aged 16 to 74, including people from every state and county in the U.S. and the District of Columbia.
According to the PIACC survey conducted in 2012, 2014, and 2017, the average rating in the United States was 264 out of 500.
Only 2% of adults worldwide are proficient readers.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a book written for an 8th-grade audience cannot be read by half of American adults.
Reading comprehension in the United States ranges from 7th to 8th grade. (Project for Literacy).
4% of Americans (or 3 % of the world’s population) are illiterate. As a result, they are unable to read proficiently enough to carry out daily tasks in today’s society.
14% of Americans attain level 1 literacy (global literacy rate: 12%), which indicates that they have below-basic reading and writing skills.
About one-third of Americans attain level 2 literacy (34% global literacy rate), which indicates that they possess fundamental reading and writing skills.
More than one-third of Americans (39% of the global literacy rate) attain level 3 literacy, indicating intermediate reading and writing skills. Level 4/5 literacy is now referred to as being present in 12% of Americans (global literacy rate: 12%). If they are at Level 4, they can read and write proficiently.

State-wise Adult Literacy Statistics

The literacy rate is the overall number of literate people who can read and write in a given age group, calculated as a percentage of that age group. The adult literacy rate assesses literacy among people 15 and older.
Of those with poor English literacy skills, 35% are White, and 2% are non-American born; 23% are Black, and 3% are non-American born; 34% are Hispanic, and 24% are non-American born, and 8% are of other races/ethnicities.
Adults with low literacy skills make up 34% of the population in the United States.

Numerous factors impact literacy rates, which vary significantly by state.

Literacy Statistics-Top 10 States with the Lowest Literacy Rates:

Let’s now look at the 10 states with the most Illiterate rates.

State	Literacy Rates	Numeracy Rate	Illiteracy Rate	Population with a bachelor’s degree
New Mexico	70.9%	60.5%	29.1%	16%
California	71.6%	64%	28.4%	22.1%
Texas	71.8%	61.5%	28.2%	21.2%
Mississippi	72%	56.6%	28%	15.4%
Louisiana	72.9%	58.4%	27.1%	16.8%
Nevada	74.7%	63.5%	25.3%	17.9%
New York	75.6%	65.3%	24.4%	22.2%
Alabama	76.1%	62.6%	23.9%	16.6%
Florida	76.3%	65.2%	23.7%	20.6%
Georgia	76.4%	63.4%	23.4%	20.9%

With a literacy rate of 75.6%, New York has the second-highest proportion of adults who are illiterate in basic prose. But besides this, New York has 22.2% of adults with bachelor’s degrees or higher.
Florida’s adult literacy rate is 76.3%, making it the state with the third-highest percentage of adults who are illiterate in basic prose.
With an adult literacy rate of 71.8%, Texas ranks fourth among all states. 19.0% of adults lack even the most basic prose literacy abilities. Texas also ranks fourth in terms of the proportion of libraries per 100,000 people.

Literacy Statistics- Top 10 States with Highest Literacy Rates

Here is data on the top 10 states with the highest literacy rates by states in the US.

State	Literacy Rate	Numeracy Rate	Illiteracy Rate	% of population with bachelor’s degree
New Hampshire	88.5%	80.9%	11.5%	24.5%
Alaska	87.3%	79.2%	12.7%	20.9%
Vermont	87.2%	79%	12.8%	26%
Minnesota	86.9%	79.6%	13.1%	25.5%
Montana	86.9%	77.3%	13.1%	22.4%
Maine	86.6%	77.1%	13.4%	22.2%
North Dakota	86.6%	79%	13.4%	22.4%
Wyoming	86.4%	77.5%	13.6%	18.5%
Utah	85.5%	77.7%	14.5%	24.1%
Iowa	85.1%	77%	14.9%	20.7%

The literacy rate in New Hampshire is 88.5%, with the lowest percentage of adults (5.8%) lacking basic prose literacy skills.
The seventh-highest rate in the nation for adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher is New Hampshire, where 60.8% of the population is registered as library users.
Only 6% of adults lack the most basic prose literacy skills in Minnesota, which has the second-highest literacy rate at 94.0%. The second-highest percentage of Americans—69.9%—register as library users in Minnesota.
With a third-place literacy rate of 68.6%, North Dakota has a population of adults who are 6.3% illiterate in basic prose. However, with 35.9%, North Dakota has the fewest registered library users.
According to Coursera Plus, nearly 54% of U.S. adults lack proficiency in literacy, significantly limiting workforce productivity.
With a literacy rate of 85.1%, South Dakota is the fifth most literate state. However, 7.0% of adults lack basic prose literacy abilities. South Dakota also has the fifth-highest number of public libraries per 100,000 people, with 16.4.

Literacy Statistics-Literacy and its Impact on the Economy

20% of the US people read below the level needed to earn a living wage.
As per the data from the national literacy, 3 out of 4 people on welfare can not read.
50% of the unemployed people are aged between 16 to 21.
Due to the inability to read, 46% to 51% of Americans have an income level below the poverty.
Illiteracy costs around $20 billion each year to American taxpayers.
Around 40% of the students in the US cannot read at a basic level.
According to ProLiteracy, on average, $106-$238 billion in annual healthcare costs are low literacy skills in America.
As per the data from the Gallup Study, raising every American adult’s literacy rate to a 6th-grade reading level can generate more than $2.2 trillion a year for the US economy.

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Alvin Parker

Hey, I'm Alvin and I grew up in Venice, California. I'm on a mission to help people to choose the right online learning platforms and courses. As of now, I'm exploring new eLearning platforms, courses and sharing my findings on ProsperityforAll.