A shockingly high number of Adults in Illinois can’t Read

New data have been unveiled, by the National Center for Education Statistics, and the numbers are alarming when it comes to how many adults in Illinois are considered "illiterate" Here are the details...

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According to an article from Illinois Policy, 1 in 5 adults, or 20% of adults, in Illinois are considered illiterate. This data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, and in the article on Illinois Policy, they say...

"One-fifth of Illinois adults are functionally illiterate, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That means they cannot understand the meaning of sentences, locate information on pages or complete simple forms, all of which would affect their abilities to hold many jobs. In Cook County, 25% of adults are functionally illiterate."

To read more about this problem in the Land of Lincoln, click here!

How did this happen?

The article goes on to mention the statistics between poverty and illiteracy, suggesting that if we can educate people that will take care of a large number of people in poverty and people who are illiterate. We spend so much time and energy focusing on kids and making sure kids have everything they need to get educated we forget that the kids who slip through the cracks grow up to be adults who then still need help getting educated.

Also, is there still a priority on reading? You used to HAVE to know how to read in order to learn and be up to date on what is going on in the world. Now people can just watch the news, watch TikTok, and listen to podcasts to know what is going on around them. It is hard to convince kids these days that reading is important.

Finally, this just makes me sad to hear. I can't imagine being my age and not being able to read, it would be a depressing feeling, and I would think it would lead to depression for a lot of people. The article does show the illiteracy rates county by county, Adams county is at 14% well below the state average of 20%, you can check out the breakdown by clicking here!