Reading the Future

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country initiative conducted in the fall of 1994. Its goal: to create comparable literacy profiles across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. The results, published in the report Literacy, Economy and Society: Results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey (Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 89-545-XPE) demonstrated a strong plausible link between literacy and a country's economic potential. This Canadian report expands and extends the analysis of the Canadian data presented in the international report, including additional data on the distribution of literacy by region and language.