79% of U.S. adults are literate

1. What the “79%” claim is and where it appears

A number of web pages and literacy-focused organizations state that “79% of U.S. adults are literate” or that 79% are literate as of 2024–2025; examples include the National Literacy Institute’s overview and several data-aggregation blogs that present 79% as an average adult literacy rate for the U.S. ^{[1] [2] [5]}. These pages often present auxiliary claims—such as 43 million adults struggling with basic reading tasks or an economic cost of low literacy up to $2.2 trillion—that are repeated across outlets ^{[1] [6] [7]}.

2. How “literacy” is being defined in these sources

The sites that publish the 79% figure do not always use the same technical definition; some describe literacy as the share of adults who can “read and write” at a basic level, others invoke proficiency bands (e.g., ability to make low-level inferences or read at a 7th–8th grade level) without pointing to a single standardized instrument ^{[8] [5]}. This matters because international and U.S. assessments—like the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and NCES studies—measure literacy on a scored continuum rather than a binary literate/illiterate percentage ^{[9] [4]}.

3. Government and academic data emphasize scores and proficiency, not a simple national percent

The NCES press release on the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills highlighted average U.S. literacy scores and a decline versus 2017, reporting the U.S. average literacy score ^[10] and ranking relative to other countries rather than issuing a 79% national literacy rate ^[4]. Wikipedia and other syntheses note that official adult-literacy measurement comes from national and international studies that track proficiency distributions and scores—metrics that are not directly equivalent to a “79% literate” headline ^{[9] [4]}.

4. State-level numbers show large variation that complicates a single national percentage

Multiple compilations and state-by-state maps show wide state variation—New Hampshire, Minnesota, and North Dakota are reported with very high literacy percentages (above 93–94%), while large states such as California and New York are presented with much lower figures in some datasets—illustrating why a single headline percentage can mask localized differences ^{[11] [12] [8]}. These state estimates often derive from different underlying measures, creating further inconsistency ^{[11] [12]}.

5. Why the 79% figure may spread despite measurement caveats

Aggregators and advocacy groups tend to distill complex survey results into a simple stat to communicate urgency; this appears to be the path that produced the widely circulated “79%” claim across several sites ^{[1] [2]}. Those pages also recycle related figures—numbers of adults below certain grade levels, economic cost estimates, and international rank claims—which amplify the impression of an established single literacy rate even when the underlying methodologies differ ^{[6] [7] [8]}.

6. What is missing or uncertain in current reporting

Available sources do not provide a single, authoritative government statement that the U.S. adult literacy rate is exactly 79% in 2024 or 2025; NCES and international reporting focus on proficiency scores and declines rather than that binary percentage ^{[4] [9]}. Where the 79% figure appears, sources vary in methodology and often do not cite a primary dataset or methodological note that links the number directly to an official survey instrument ^{[1] [2]}.

7. How to interpret and use the 79% claim responsibly

Treat the “79% literate” figure as a useful headline from secondary aggregators that flags serious literacy challenges, but cross-check with primary sources: NCES, PIAAC, and state-level data that report score distributions and proficiency bands ^{[4] [9] [11]}. When citing a national percentage, specify the definition and data source; if no primary source is provided by an aggregator, note that the figure is reported by nonprofits and compilations rather than derived directly from a named federal survey ^{[1] [2]}.

If you want, I can pull the NCES/PIAAC proficiency breakdowns and state-by-state tables referenced above so you can compare the score-based measures to the 79% aggregations.