You may not realize it, but a family member, neighbor or co-worker may not know how to read. It's a problem that affects us all.

Did you know that adults who read at less than a fifth-grade level...

• Make up 18 percent of the population of Summit County.
• Typically cannot fill out a job application, read a medicine bottle, locate an intersection on a street map or read a bank statement.
• Very often live in poverty (43 percent nationally).
• Earned a median income of $240 per week compared to $681 for those reading at the highest level.
• Worked an average of 19 weeks a year, compared to 44 weeks for those reading at the hightest level.

Information on this page is taken from the 1992 and 2002 National Adult Literacy Surveys. To read the complete report from the most recent survey, please click here.”

An adult at Literacy Level One (the lowest level of proficiency) can usually:

• Sign his or her name
• Identify a country in a short article
• Locate one piece of information in a sports article
• Locate the expiration date on a driver's license
• Total a bank deposit entry

He or she cannot usually:

• Locate an eligibility form on a table of employee benefits
• Locate an intersection on a street map
• Locate two pieces of information in a sports article
• Identify and enter background information on a social security card application
• Calculate the total costs of a purchase on an order form.

Literacy in Summit County

Eighteen percent of adults living in Ohio struggle with completing bank deposit slips or reading bus schedules. Though they are not illiterate, they are not able to perform simple tasks. The National Institute for Literacy recently released statistics that for the first time provide literacy figures for nearly every city, county and congressional district in the United States. The State of Literacy in America: Estimates at the Local, State and National Levels shows that 40-44 million adults nationwide who are struggling with literacy problems are falling further behind. Get the Report (pdf format).

Efforts to promote literacy

The Federal government provided $361 million dollars for adult education and family literacy programs in 1996. This funding enables millions of families to participate in basic education programs that help people help themselves.

Federal adult education funds leverage an additional $800 million each year in state funds for literacy and millions of dollars in private funding.

For more information and statistics on adult literacy, visit the National Institute for Literacy.