Literacy Fact Sheet

• Five to six-year-olds have a vocabulary of 2,500-5,000 words.

• The vocabulary of disadvantaged students in the first grade is nearly half that of an

advantaged student.

• The educational path of 25 to 40 percent of American children is in danger because they

don't read well enough, quickly enough, or easily enough.

• It is estimated that more than $2 billion is spent each year on students who repeat a grade

because of reading problems.

• Since 1983, more than 10 million Americans reached the 12th grade without knowing

how to read at a basic level. In the same period, more than 6 million Americans dropped out of

high school altogether.

• It is estimated that the cost of illiteracy to businesses and taxpayers is $20 billion per

year.

• More than one million children drop out of school each year, costing the country more

than $240 billion in lost earnings, lost tax revenues and spending on social services.

• More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level - far below the level

needed to earn a living wage.

• More than three out of four people on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those

arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America's prison inmates are illiterate.

• 44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.

Approximately 50 percent of the country’s unemployed youth 16 to 21-years-old are functional

illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining good jobs.

• Nearly half of America's adults are poor readers or "functionally illiterate." They can't

carry out simply tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job

application. 60 percent of prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have

reading problems.

• Children who have not developed some basic literacy skills by the time they enter school

are 3 - 4 times more likely to drop out in later years.

• To participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020, citizens will need powerful

literacy abilities that until now have been achieved by only a small percentage of the population.

• 21 million Americans can't read at all, 45 million are marginally illiterate and one-fifth of

high school graduates can't read their diplomas.

• In a class of 20 students, few if any teachers have even 5 minutes of time in a day to

devote to reading with each student.

• Out-of-school reading habits of students has shown that even 15 minutes a day of

independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year.

• Students who reported having all four types of reading materials (books, magazines,

newspapers, encyclopedias) in their home scored, on average, higher than those who reporter

having fewer reading materials.

• 50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.