Mapped: Adult Literacy Rates by U.S. State

Mapped: Adult Literacy Rates by U.S. State

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How much does reading comprehension vary between U.S. states and counties?

In this visualization from USAFacts, we look at the adult literacy rate by U.S. state.

Survey data comes from PIAAC and uses records from years 2012/2014/2017 and auxiliary data from the American Community Survey (2013–2017).

Ranked: U.S. States by Literacy Score

In first place is New Hampshire, with a literacy score of 278.9, narrowly beating out Minnesota.

A literacy score is essentially a snapshot of reading‐comprehension and text‐analysis skills on a standardized scale. The numbers in the 250–280 range don’t measure “percent literate” but rather show where a state’s (or individual’s) average ability lies on a 0–500 continuum.

The most populous states are all quite low on the ranking: New York (42nd), Florida (44th) California (46th), and Texas (48th) are all in the bottom 10. This is possibly because more populous states receive higher numbers of immigrants that don’t have English as a first language.

The last place ranking is a tie: Louisiana and New Mexico both slot in with a 251.5 score.

U.S. Counties by Literacy Score

Now let’s look down at the county level. For the full breakdown of data at this granularity, go see the PIAAC Skills Map.

The two counties with the highest scores are Falls Church City, Virginia (299.9) and Hamilton County, Indiana (294.5).

Data is not shown for Chugach and Copper River Census Areas in Alaska due to Valdez-Cordova Census area split in 2019.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this post, check out The Global Literacy Rate (1820-2022) on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.