Americans Don’t Read

In 2013, the Nation’s Report Card showed that only 38% of high school seniors were proficient in

reading. With scores like that, the U.S. isn’t likely to earn the “most literate country” award any time soon.

So what is America’s international literacy ranking? According to The Washington Post, the U.S. places seventh behind Nordic countries such as Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Such a score is obtained by looking at newspaper circulation and readership, library availability, education access, reading scores, and computer usage in each nation.  

The Washington Post bemoans the fact that the leading nation of the free world ranks so low in such an important area. And well they should, particularly as the following U.S. literacy statistics are even more alarming:   

• 14% of adults can’t read.
• Only 13% of adults can read at a proficient level.
• 28% of adults didn’t read a book in the last year.
• 50% of adults can’t read a book written at an 8th grade level.

But so what, right? In our enlightened digital age, what harm does it really bring if American literacy is tanking?

Read more:
Americans Don’t Read… and that’s Affecting our Elections | Intellectual Takeout