The UK's growing adult literacy problem

One in five Britons aged between 16 and 65 can only read at or below the level expected of a 10-year-old, according to a major new study of literacy rates across the developed world.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been assessing adult literacy and numeracy levels in over 30 countries for the past 20 years. And its latest Survey of Adult Skills report, released last week, makes for "extremely uncomfortable reading", said Robert Glick, chair of the UK's Adult Literacy Trust, writing in The Big Issue.

'Painfully stagnant' literacy skills

Millions of British adults "struggle with basic literacy", said Glick, and this costs the economy an estimated £40 billion per year. And it's not a new situation. Despite "estimable efforts" by organisations and volunteers, literacy skills in the UK have "remained painfully stagnant" since 2018.

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Another report, from the The Reading Agency charity in July, found that the number of UK adults who never read regularly for pleasure had increased by 88% in the past decade, from 8% to 15% of those surveyed. Those who described themselves as "regularly" reading for pleasure had fallen from 58% to 50%, while 35% now described their reading activity as "lapsed".

This year's "What Kids Are Reading Report", a survey of 1.2 million school students across the UK and Ireland, revealed that children are also "reading fewer books for pleasure", said The Bookseller. The study found a 4.4% decrease in the number of books read by children year on year. This was the first time since 2008 – apart from the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic – that a fall had been recorded.

Scrolling, not reading

Countries with falling literacy scores "outnumber those making significant progress", said The Economist. That's despite more people in those countries finishing secondary school and getting degrees. One explanation, said the magazine, could be "increased migration", with non-native speakers naturally tending to score lower on literacy tests that involve "juggling words".

But if adults are getting less adept at coping with complex texts, "I put the blame squarely on technology", said Helen Coffey in The Independent. The "insignificant strips of dead time" that were once filled by "whipping out a fantasy novel or juicy biography" are now "firmly in the custody" of Netflix, WhatsApp and social media. Mornings spent "reading over a bowl of cereal" are now spent "scrolling in bed", and "quiet evenings spent rifling pages" have "given way to binge-watching streaming services" where "there's always something on telly".

Reversing the decline means making literacy programmes "more accessible and relevant", through a "robust, well-funded and well-promoted adult-education programme", wrote Glick. This would require significant government investment, of course, but the OECD report shows in "glaring terms" that the "time to act is now".