Literacy rates will fall in the next 20 years

A report out today from the Canadian Council on Learning predicts that literacy rates will fall significantly in the next twenty years.

Ottawa alone "can expect to see an 80% increase in adults with low literacy; from approximately 275,000 in 2001 to nearly 500,000 by 2031," says the press release. The key factors behind this increase "are a spike in the population of seniors (as literacy skills tend to wane as people age) and the growing number of immigrants with low literacy."