Literacy Rate By State

In the United States, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy has established three types of literacy skills: prose, document, and quantitative, and has emphasized their importance in today's workforce. Nevertheless, not every region in the U.S. has equal access to the resources shaping these skills and supporting literacy development, leading to varying literacy rates state by state.

Our report delves into the literacy rates by state, highlighting their ranking based on the percentage of the population identified as literate.

• The states enjoying the highest literacy rates are mainly in the northeast and midwest regions. New Hampshire comes out on top with a literacy rate of 94.2%, followed by Minnesota at 94.0%, and North Dakota at 93.7%.
• There's a clear regional disparity in terms of literacy rates. The bottom five states are all from the south and west regions, with California having the lowest rate of 76.9%.
• There's a noticeable gap between the highest literacy rate (New Hampshire, 94.2%) and the lowest one (California, 76.9%), signaling a significant literacy divide among U.S. states.