Canada’s literacy rates: Getting a read on the data

September 8 is International Literacy Day. It’s been 60 years since it was first proclaimed by the United Nations (UN), and this year’s theme is “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity.”

International Literacy Day is an opportunity to measure progress, understand challenges and shape future agendas to improve literacy. However, there is still work to be done—for example, at least 739 million youth and adults worldwide lacked basic literacy skills in 2024, and two in five children were not reaching minimum proficiency in reading.

Here at home, Statistics Canada partnered with other countries and economies to measure literacy through the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). 

The most recent PIAAC data for Canada are from 2022. Let’s have a look at the key numbers.

The PIAAC classifies literacy scores into levels 1 to 5, and below level 1. For example, individuals at level 1 can read brief texts on familiar topics to find a single piece of specific information. Most adults below level 1 can only understand short, simple sentences. On the other end, adults at levels 4 and 5 can integrate information across multiple dense texts and reason by inference.

In Canada, 14% of those aged 16 to 65 years had literacy scores at levels 4 and 5, compared with an average of 11% among the 27 participating Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

At the other end of the scale, the gap was larger. Less than one-fifth (19%) of Canada’s population aged 16 to 65 years was in the two lowest levels, compared with 27% across participating OECD countries.

Higher education is generally tied to higher scores. For instance, the average literacy score for Canadians aged 25 to 65 with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 293 (middle range of level 3), compared with 275 (upper range of level 2) for those with postsecondary education below a bachelor’s degree and 246 (middle range of level 2) for those with a high school diploma or less.

Canadians aged 25 to 34 held the highest literacy scores, while those aged 55 to 65 had the lowest.

Established immigrants had higher scores than recent immigrants. Language proficiency could be a factor here, given that the PIAAC was administered only in English and French in Canada.

Quality education is one of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted by all UN member states in 2015.

Literacy is one of the targets for measuring progress towards quality education. The proportion of Canadians aged 16 to 65 in the three lowest levels of proficiency was 49% in 2022, largely unchanged from 2012.

Check out Canada’s data on the Sustainable Development Goals for more information and progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Literacy is also one of the skills measured under Prosperity in our Quality of Life Hub.

Data literacy is the ability to understand and use data, including the ability to read, analyze, interpret, visualize and communicate it. 

Visit our Data literacy training page for more information and resources, including self-paced courses and short videos.