55 US Literacy Statistics: Literacy Rate, Average Reading Level (2023)

FAQs

What is the US reading level average? ›

Here's what we know: Half of U.S. adults can't read a book written at the 8th-grade level, according to the OECD. The average American reads at the 7th- to 8th-grade level, according to The Literacy Project.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of adults in the United States have prose literacy below the 6th-grade level.

130 million Americans—54% of adults between the ages of 16 and 74 years old—lack proficiency in literacy, essentially reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. Often, counties with the lowest literacy rates are the same areas that experience poor health, poverty, and low economic mobility.

(Correction: Central Connecticut State University has released a corrected version of the rankings. The U.S. moves up from 11th to 7th.) A new world ranking of countries and their literacy rates puts the United States at 7th.

21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2023. 54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level. Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.

Patterson said adult literacy program attendance nationally has decreased over the past two decades due to lack of funding and public schools pushing for more students to graduate high school.

Your average reader in Grade 5 will fall between 565L and 910L, though there will be readers who fall below the average, and others who are reading at a more advanced level.

Developed nations almost always have an adult literacy rate of 96% or better. In contrast, the least developed nations manage an average literacy rate of only 65%.

People with low literacy skills may not be able to read a book or newspaper, understand road signs or price labels, make sense of a bus or train timetable, fill out a form, read instructions on medicines or use the internet.

How do you calculate literacy level? ›

Calculated with the number of people aged 15 to 24 years who are literate divided by the total population in the same age group Based on National population census, household and/or labour force surveys.

The global literacy rate currently stands at 87%, up from 12% in 1820. Most developed countries have achieved a 99% literacy rate. But as this Statista graph shows, strong regional inequalities remain.

The five stages of literacy development include emergent literacy, alphabetic fluency, words and patterns, intermediate reading, and advanced reading.

5th Grade: 40-50. 6th Grade: 50-60. 7th & 8th Grade: 60-80.

The state of New Mexico has the lowest literacy rate in the United States, with a rate of 70.9%. It is estimated that about 800,000 adults in New Mexico lack basic prose literacy skills.

In the 7th grade, studies using a national sample of students have shown that typically readers will score at a Lexile level between 735L and 1065L over the course of the year. Growth of around 69L is generally achievable for 7^th graders should students be progressing at around 1.3L per week.

Teens in grades 7 through 12 can read between 115 words per minute and 185 words per minute. College-aged adults can read between 200 and 300 words, while adults have an average reading rate of 200 words and 250 words per minute. This speed declines steadily with age.

The Harry Potter book series is Middle Grade, not YA (Young Adult). This means it is generally written for children ages 8-12 and grade levels 3-7.

The U.S. reading crisis is 20 years in the making; 130 million read below 6th grade level. While those in education understand the current state of the nation's literacy crisis, most everyday Americans are dangerously unaware.

Illiteracy is connected to unemployment and low-paying jobs

Many Americans lack the literacy skills to fill out a job application. One in 5 adults struggle to read basic sentences and fill out forms, according to the Barbara Bush Foundation.

What level should a 4th grader be reading at? ›

The average 4th grader will have a Lexile score of 445L to 810L. However, this is true for around 50% of students, with around 25% being below the average, while the other 25% are likely to be above the average. The same study showcased that students can be up to 250L above or below the average.

Range of Typical reading Levels in Second Grade

In the fall, second graders typically independently read at a Level 18. By the end of second grade, a typical second grader will independently read at Level 28.

In the fall, kindergarteners typically independently read at a Level A. By the end of kindergarten, a typical student will independently read at Level 4. It is important to note that some students may have DRA scores that are above or below the grade-level expectation.

Decades of underinvestment in schools, culture battles over bilingual education, and dizzying levels of income inequality have pushed California to the bottom of the pile, making it the least literate state in the nation. Nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence.

There are 3 Literacy Skills within the 21st-century skills framework, these are Information Literacy, Media Literacy and Technology Literacy.

Czech Republic. The Czech Republic has a literacy rate of 99.83%. In the Czech Republic, schools are not state-funded until elementary school. This is mandatory for all students until the age of fifteen when students can choose to pursue higher education, vocational school, military training, or cease formal schooling.

Level 3: Adults are required to read and navigate dense, lengthy or complex texts. Level 4: Adults can integrate, interpret or synthesise information from complex or lengthy texts.

It can be also used as a proxy instrument to see the effectiveness of education system; a high literacy rate suggests the capacity of an education system to provide a large population with opportunities to acquire literacy skills.

Children go through four distinct stages of reading development: emergent reading, early reading, transitional reading, and fluent reading. Although the order of the stages remains the same, children progress through these stages at different rates.

What Lexile level is 12th grade? ›

Texts required for many postsecondary pursuits fall within a Lexile range of 1200L to 1400L, while the text complexity of typical high school textbooks for grades 11 and 12 is about 1050L to 1165L.

According to national studies, the typical 9^th grader should score on Lexile between 855L and 1165L over the course of the year.

According to this report, the average incoming college Freshman reads at a mere seventh-grade level, despite K-12 “Common Core Standards” developed by the U.S. Government in 2009 to bolster college and career preparation.

Sixty five percent of all U.S. fourth graders scored “below proficient,” which means that they are not reading at grade level.

In the 6^th grade, higher performers should be looking to achieve Lexile scores of around 1000L by the end of the year, with the average scores being over 665L. Yearly growth in the 6^th grade falls under 100L typically, with expected growth at 1.7L per week.

How many adults aren't able to read above an eighth grade level? An estimated 63 million adults read between a sixth and eighth grade level. Just 11% of men and 12% of women make the grade as proficient readers.

The average reading rates for kids in grades 1-6 are between 80 and 185 words per minute (wpm). Teens have an average reading speed of 195 to 204 wpm. For college-aged adults, the average reading speed is between 200 and 300 words per minute.

The average reading score for 4th-grade students in 2019 (220) was lower than the score in 2017 (222), but it was higher than the score in 1992 (217). For 8th-grade students, the reading score in 2019 (263) was lower than the score in 2017 (267), but it was higher than the score in 1992 (260).

In the first data release from the National Assessment of Educational Progress since the COVID-19 pandemic began, 2022 findings reveal that more than two-thirds (68%) of U.S. fourth-graders are not proficient in reading, up from 66% in 2019.

What should a 7th grade reading level? ›

4th Grade: 38-40. 5th Grade: 40-50. 6th Grade: 50-60. 7th & 8th Grade: 60-80.

The higher the Lexile measure, the higher the student's reading level. The reader's Lexile Framework works in intervals of five with 5L being the lowest. The highest possible measure is 2000L. Anything below 5L is assessed as a BR or Beginning Reader.

A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade. "A fifth-grade reading level is obviously not high enough for college-level reading.

Experts say that most children learn to read by age 6 or 7, meaning first or second grade, and that some learn much earlier.

3. The majority of children don't spend enough time reading outside of school. According to teachers, students should be reading between 15 minutes and 1 hour a day outside of school (85% of teachers expect daily reading in this range), but most of their students are reading less than the 15-minute daily minimum.