The UK's growing adult literacy problem

Global report shows Britain's decline in reading skills as we choose scrolling and streaming over turning the pages of a book

Photo collage of a man lying down on top of a pile of outsized books. He is looking at his phone.
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(Image credit: Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images)

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.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.