Was listening to Ray Dalio state that 60% of Americans have a 6th grade or less literacy rate. Per below 54% are below 6th grade so that may be correct.
From
https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025literacy-statistics
> On average, 79% of U.S. adults nationwide are literate in 2024.
> 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2024.
> 54% of adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level (20% are below 5th-grade level).
> Low levels of literacy costs the US up to 2.2 trillion per year.
> 34% of adults lacking literacy proficiency were born outside the US.
> Massachusetts was the state with the highest rate of child literacy.
> New Mexico was the state with the lowest child literacy rate.
> New Hampshire was the state with the highest percentage of adults considered literate.
> The state with the lowest adult literacy rate was California.
Where does the US rank in literacy? The US ranks 36th in literacy.
Looked up CA (
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/us-literacy-rates-by-state)
> 1. California's 23.1% of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills make California have the lowest literacy rate of 76.9%.
2. New York
New York has the second-highest percentage of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills of 22.1%, equaling a literacy rate of 77.9%. Despite this, New York has the ninth-highest percentage of adults with Bachelor's degrees or higher of 35.7%.
3. Florida
Florida has the third-highest percentage of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills of 19.7%, equaling a literacy rate of 80.3%. Florida has the lowest number of public libraries per 100,000 residents of 2.6.
4. Texas
Texas has the fourth-lowest literacy rate of 81.0%, with 19.0% of adults lacking basic prose literacy skills. Texas has the fourth-lowest number of libraries of 3.2 per 100,000 residents.