One in four young adults across the U.S. is functionally illiterate – yet more than half earned high school diplomas, according to recently released data.
The number of 16-to-24 year olds reading at the lowest literacy levels increased from 16% in 2017 to 25% in 2023, according to data released in December from the National Center for Education Statistics in partnership with the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
In 2023, a total of about five million young adults, equivalent to the population of Alabama, could understand the basic meaning of short texts but could not analyze long reading materials, according to further analysis by the American Institute of Research.
The nine percentage point increase is in line with an unprecedented decline in the literacy rate among all adults in the same six-year period.
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