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This interactive data retrieval system allows users to retrieve their own customized tables on literacy profiles for more than 20 countries and for a wide range of combined intermediate variables covering several topics such as: adult education, community activities, demographics, educational experience, household information, labour force experience, language background, mathematics, parental information, reading at home or at work, self-reported skills, training and writing at home or at work.

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country initiative conducted in the fall of 1994. Its goal: to create comparable literacy profiles across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. The survey also offers the world's only source of comparative data on participation in adult education and training. The results, published in the report "Literacy, economy and society: Results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey" (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Statistics Canada, 1995), demonstrated a strong plausible link between literacy and a country's economic potential. Since then, a second and a third round of data collection of IALS were conducted in an additional 16 countries in 1996 (See "Literacy skills for the knowledge society: Further results of the International Adult Literacy Survey" (OECD and Human Resources Development Canada, 1997)) and in 1998 (See "Literacy in the information age: Final report of the International Adult Literacy Survey" (OECD and Statistics Canada, 2000)). Several thematic reports and international comparative reports were published following these second and third waves of data collection. In total, IALS includes literacy data pertaining to 23 countries or regions around the world.

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([B] = Bilingual; see "Bilingual products" below )

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Keywords

cultural statistics, databases, employment, household characteristics, international comparisons, labour force, languages, mathematics, parents, proficiency, reading, skill development, skills, surveys, work experience, writing.

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Bilingual products

Some bilingual products have changed to separate English and French products. In these cases, back issues are bilingual and the more recent issues are unilingual.

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