Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
You have it backwards actually. You need to walk further into the cities to see the really poorly-educated.
Here’s the actual data. Look at Illinois for example. All the rural counties are right around 8% functional illiteracy. Then Cook County (Chicago) is literally double at 19%. The trend seems to repeat in every state. Queens and Brooklyn are the most illiterate parts of NY, while far-away Ontario County is the most literate.
The only real exception is in the Southwest. California’s most illiterate county is rural Imperial County with a whopping 41% illiteracy because of all the immigration.