Literacy Performance on 2003 Adult Literacy Skills Survey

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Abstract

In 2003, the average prose literacy score for the Canadian population age 16 and over was 272 on a scale ranging from 0 to 500. Prose literacy is defined as the skills needed to understand and use information from texts. The average prose literacy scores were above the national average in the Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Conversely, the average prose literacy scores of those of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut were below the Canadian average. Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island had average prose scores that were not statistically different than the Canadian averages. In Quebec there were significant variations in performance across the domains. This map depicts average prose scores by census divisions and census subdivisions.

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In 2003 the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) tested over 23 000 Canadian adults on their skills proficiency (either in english or french) based on four domains including prose, document, numeracy and problem-solving. IALSS conceptualized proficiency along a continuum that denoted how well adults use information to function in society and the economy on the basis of levels one to five, that is, lowest to highest. For employed Canadians, level three is the desired score to meet present and future demands of a knowledge-based economy. The IALSS does not measure the absence of competence. Rather it measures knowledge and skills in the four domains across a range of abilities. Consequently, the results cannot be used to classify population groups as either "literate" or "illiterate".

The survey showed that proficiency was not evenly distributed within Canada. The provinces and territories fell roughly into three groups based on average scores. The Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan had average scores significantly higher than the national average in all domains. But it was the Yukon, where more of the population is of working age, and more of the work force is employed in professional occupations, that had the highest scores in the country. Its score in the prose literacy domain was higher than the average scores in all the other provinces and territories. Five jurisdictions, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, had average scores in all domains that were about the same as the Canadian national average. Those with scores significantly below the national average in all domains were Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, and Nunavut.

Only in Quebec was there significant variation in performance across the domains. In numeracy and problem solving, Quebec's average scores were about the same as the national level. For the two literacy domains, Quebec's average scores were below the national average.

The data for the mapping come from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey and the 2001 Canadian Census. The information is based on a technique developed by the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy which estimate a score on an outcome variable for all Canadian citizens, based on the best available information for each individual. The approach uses the 2001 Canadian census data to create a file for each province that includes a “pseudo-record” for every individual in the province, based on the distribution of people by gender and age in each dissemination area. An estimate of a person’s outcome (in this case a literacy score) for each person in the pseudo-record file is then estimated using multilevel multiple regression techniques, based on the following data: (a) information at the individual level from the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey about how well other people of the same age and gender scored in the person’s dissemination area, and in other dissemination areas in their local area, and (b) information at the dissemination area-level on the average outcome scores and the demographic characteristics of all dissemination areas in the province. Data at the dissemination level were then re-combined into data at the census division and census sub-division level.

For a detailed description of the methodology used to measure adult literacy, please refer to the report Measuring Adult Literacy and Life Skills: New Framework for Assessment. Further information on adult literacy results at the national and provincial level can be found in the report Building our Competencies: Canadian Results of the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from the Statistics Canada’s Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at: www.statcan.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.

Please read the following Data and Mapping Notes for information on how the map was derived.