I’m from Guinea and here the literacy rate for males is about 40% and for females its about 20%. If your a woman people only expect you do be able to read if you look rich or look like a westerner here to paint a school.

28 comments

  1. I don’t know about the accuracy of the statistic, but literacy is very high, and it would be very difficult being illiterate in the US.

  2. I don’t have a way to field test that statistic, but it don’t doubt it. Honestly, I’d feel pretty bad for an adult that couldn’t read. I can’t imagine it’d be easy doing day to day things, that way.

  3. What do they consider illiteracy? I think everyone can read and write to some extent. However, for some people that extent isn’t all that great. We’ve all seen Reddit posts that prove not everyone can compose a coherent sentence.

  5. if I learned that someone is illiterate in my community, I’d probably assume they’re either disabled or from an exceptionally impoverished and/or abusive background.

    parents in the US are required by law to send their children to school (some choose online or home schooling options). public schools are free at the point of use for everyone. the quality of these schools varies a lot depending on school district, location, budget, etc., but generally people learn the basics.

    not being able to read in the US would be a huge disadvantage. it would be hard to maintain employment, manage finances, drive, or even navigate public transit. you’d probably need some kind of assistance to live your life.

  6. I truly hope that someday things change in your country. 40% and 20% is very concerning in my opinion,

    Having a literate population has been shown to so drastically help communities. For women, it helps decreases rates of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and child marriage. While both men and women generally gain higher wages. When put together, it helps create a healthier and stronger living environment for everyone.

  7. Reading comprehension is probably a bit lower, but life would be very difficult for someone who’s illiterate. I imagine that even someone not entirely fluent in English might have an easier time in some parts of the country. It helps that we have nearly universal basic education.

  8. Yeah you pretty much expect anyone over the age of 10 to be able to read in at least 1 language tbh. Maybe not well but at least be literate enough to function

  9. Being unable to read in the US is a very big obstacle. Even many of the lowest-paid would be difficult to keep up with if you couldn’t read.

    I don’t know about the accuracy of the 99% figure, but as a society we don’t accept anything less than 100% literacy as being “good enough.”. As long as there are people who can’t read, it will be considered a problem to solve.

    My mother, when she was retired from her job, volunteered with a program that taught older people to read. So even when someone is a senior citizen there are programs trying to help them learn some literacy skills, if they want to try.

  11. God help any first world nation that DOES’T have nearly universal literacy. The fact that it’s so low in your country is what’s shocking.

  12. The US is rapidly becoming more literate, statistically. This is due mostly to the fact that members of older generations, who grew up in a time where quitting k-12 school to work was acceptable, are dying. It’s much less common nowadays for people to drop out of school without being able to read. With that being said, there are still rural and poor urban areas where illiteracy is a thing. It’s just much less common overall. I do think it would be pretty hard to go about life here without being able to read as it’s very much expected.

  13. Yeah, that sounds about right for a literacy rate. Maybe a percent or two lower, the US is an extremely rich western nation that has free public schooling. I don’t think it would be looked down upon but, it would be rather strange and a bit sad to discover somebody is from the US but, is illiterate considering how vital of a skill it is and how majority go to school here. You could still take up classes and the like for adults that are illiterate though. Just a quick Google search shows me various hits for Adult Literacy Classes/Programs in my area alone.

  14. School of some sort is mandatory (and some form of schooling is free) for all children in the U.S. and the ability to read is used as both a developmental maker in children as well as a requirement for advancing school grades.

    Like others have said, disability, abuse/neglect would be assumed if someone couldn’t read. Saying that, literacy can be of very low quality and still count. And there are cases where children are advanced through school without having to prove they can read but that’s because they were allowed to fall through the cracks which is a form of neglect by the school system & their parents in my opinion.

  15. It seems crazy high because your experience is so different. K-12 education is compulsory here. It would take an extraordinary set of circumstances for an adult to not be able to read and write, basically a childhood of utter neglect or with some wild alternative lifestyle.

  17. The only illiterate people I’ve known are young children and very disabled people. Even many very mentally disabled people have some level of literacy (like being able to sound out letters and read and write simple notes.) It’s a major priority to ensure your children are literate.

    Sometimes the word “illiterate” is used non-literally. You might refer to someone as technologically illiterate if they are bad with technology. Sometimes people snobbishly refer to uneducated people as “basically illiterate.” However, actual, “can’t read or write” illiteracy is extremely rare.

  18. Literacy rate appears to be very high but then you see someone like Floyd Mayweather try to read and it really makes you wonder…

  19. It’s not just hard to live if you’re illiterate, it’s damn near impossible. I don’t know how anyone would be able to function day to day without being able to read.

    That statistic sounds accurate to me, because everyone learns to read as a child.

  20. I’ve only met one person that I would say was somewhat illiterate. He grew up in the segregated south as a black man in a very rural town. He received no real education. Now could he sign his name? Yes. But his daughter (who was getting her phd) would send him letters and we would go over them together. He could figure out some of it, but not all. So fully illiterate? No. But he had a very low level of reading. Great guy. I really miss him.

  21. I doubt very heavily that anyone in the US who isn’t disabled is illiterate since, you need to be able to read to function here. Not only from a practical perspective. Warnings, rules, etc. Are all written places and ignorance of them isn’t a legal excuse and can land you in some hot water. For example, walking into a building with a “no trespassing” sign could have you wind up with a charge. Furthermore since driving is so Integral it’s needed for that as well. We learn how to read basic English early on in school and it is a crime (up until you are 16) to not either send your child to school or otherwise provide them an adequate education.

  22. It’s almost impossible to function in our society if you are illiterate. To the point that people who pull it often will sometimes have a news story about them.

    “He lives for 60 years not knowing how to read or write!”

    Also, our women have full enfranchisement and are encouraged to have careers. It’s not like some patriarchal societies where women are discouraged from things that could enable independence.

  24. I read applications for the lowest of the low job in a plastics factory.

    There was a few people to were close to illiterate. But, these people were very likely from that 1%. They were extremely vulnerable people — foster care/low IQ/and probably on the spectrum.

    I remember one guy trying to fill his application, meaning to spell “one” — but posted “wun”.

    They were people really trying to overcome some difficult challenges.

  25. Meeting someone who is illiterate is extremely rare, even in impoverished areas. Most people have never and will never meet anyone who is illiterate, assuming they’re not children and not mentally disabled.

    I wouldn’t say it’s “looked down upon” as much as it’s a massive red flag that something’s wrong. People would immediately be worried and wonder why the person can’t read or write.

    School is free and compulsory in the US for kids, parents are required to send their kids to school, or provide an equivalent education somehow. And as much as Americans hate our school system and as much as it needs improvement, from a global perspective, it’s actually quite good. This means that every single child is taught to read and write. Because of this, anyone who can’t read would set off red flags, people would wonder why this person wasn’t sent to school as a kid, and would likely assume an abuse or neglect situation.

    Basically, we don’t look down on the illiterate, we worry about them immensely if we meet them/hear about them.

    If you cannot read, it would be extremely difficult to live in America. Every job requires literacy, all of them. You’d need to be literate to be able to agree to rent a house or apartment rental, as all agreements are done in writing. You wouldn’t be able to navigate, as you wouldn’t be able to read street names. To do business with anyone requires reading.

  26. I met illiterate people while volunteering in ESOL classes. They needed to be in special classes because not being able to read or write in your own language makes it extremely difficult to learn another language. It would take ages just to get them to the point where they could write their address and phone number.

    They were mainly Afghan women who had come over with their husbands. They were in complete culture shock on top of everything else.

  27. Most replies here seem to think literacy is incredibly high.

    America is the land of immigration, and many immigrants cannot read and write English. That absolutely impacs literacy rates.

    For born Americans, literacy is practically a given. For others, not so much.

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