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Comment by lordnacho | Hacker News Reader

>Ultimately, about one out of every five English speakers are functionally illiterate, meaning they "cannot read or write well enough for everyday literacy needs," Bell said.

This is an utterly surprising statistic. Do they mean people who aren't native speakers?

Having lived in the UK for many years, I never came across anyone who couldn't read for daily needs. How would you even use public transport?

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I'd be interested to hear what the definition of "everyday literacy needs" is, because I've had a similar experience in the US. Unless there is a large concentration of people who are actually mostly illiterate in rural areas, this statistic must be misleading.

Perhaps it's the circles you move in - I've come across UK native adults who struggle to read basic texts. I'd peg it at more like 1 in 50 : but that might be an over-statement depending on what you consider "everyday literacy needs".

Public transport: You ask a neighbour what bus number, or your work tells you to get bus X, or you ask the driver "does this bus go to ..." and remember the number for future trips, etc..

I don't know many people, but I do know (not personally, he's in my school) who can't read. When we are reading out loud it takes him somewhere around a second per word.

20% seems really high to me, but I'm also in school and don't really know anyone else, so if someone can't read in school there must be more somewhere outside of school. But I would like to see that study.

I think this might be a US centric article.

20% only sounds right if you are lumping in immigrants who are barely able to speak English.

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