What is the literacy rate in Boston?

The answer to this question depends on how one defines literacy, but an increasingly accepted definition of what is required to function in Massachusetts -- to obtain and hold a job -- is at least high school level basic skills.

By that definition, using 1990 Census data, the illiteracy rate is at least 23-24% if one were to assume (which one cannot) that all high school graduates have good basic skills.

Another estimate, based on a synthesis of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), suggests that for Boston the rate for adults with insufficient basic skills may be as high as 53% with perhaps as many as 28% of the city's population with very low (Level 1) literacy skills. Using this definition, Boston's adult illiteracy/low literacy rate, by any reasonable definition, would certainly be at least 30% -- 110,000 adults over the age of 25. This includes native speakers of English and those for whom English is a second or other language. This figure would be higher if, as it should, it also included 16-25 year olds who left school without graduating.

A synthetic study prepared by adult literacy research Dr. Stephen Reder, and based on data from the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), provides us with the following information on Boston.  (See Adult Literacy Synthetic Database for all the data on Boston. See http://www.nifl.gov/reders/!faq.htm for information on what synthetic estimates are and how these were arrived at. See http://www.nifl.gov/reders/!intro.htm#D for an explanation of what Level 1 means.)

Population Age 16+: 476,275

Mean NALS Literacy Proficiency: 263

Percent at NALS Level 1: 28%

Percent at NALS Level 1 or 2: 53%

Census Predictors

(Based on 1990 U.S. Census Data)

Education less than 9th grade: 9%

Education between 9th and 12th grades: 14%

High school diploma or equivalent: 26%

Received some college - no degree: 19%

Received Associates Degree: 5 %

Received Bachelors Degree: 18%

Attended graduate school: 10 %

Speak English very well: 87% Weeks

Speak English well: 6%

Speak English not well or not at all: 7%

For complete table of data, go to:

National Adult Literacy Survey Synthetic Data by State, County and Municipality

FROM THE STATE CENSUS DATA CENTER

1990 STF3 EXTRACT REPORT: U.S. PLACES

+-------------------------------+-------------------+

| STATE --------------------> | MA |

| GEOCODE --------------------> | 25-0440 |

| AREA NAME--------------------> | Boston city |

+-------------------------------+-------------------+

XP1. GENERAL POPULATION

TOTAL PERSONS/PERCENT SAMPLED.. 574,283 11.0%

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XP9. LEVEL OF EDUCATION

TOTAL PERSONS AGE 25+.......... 365,708 100%

LESS THAN 9TH GRADE........... 37,824 10.3%

9TH TO 12TH GRADE, NO DIPLOMA. 51,051 14.0%

HIGH SCHOOL GRAD. (OR EQUIV).. 97,233 26.6%

SOME COLLEGE, NO DEGREE....... 51,263 14.0%

ASSOCIATE/BACHELOR'S DEGREE... 83,016 22.7%

GRADUATE OR PROFSSIONAL DEGREE 45,321 12.4%

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