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Canada, like many other industrialized countries, is increasingly being forced to face the literacy problem within its own borders. Over the past decade, the issue has become more prominent on the national policy and research agenda. There has been little systematic research in Canada, however, on the relationship between literacy and income security. Using data from the Canadian component of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), this study seeks to fill this research gap. An in-depth exploration of the links between literacy and economic security will build on existing knowledge and will also provide useful insights that will help shape public policy.

This book presents evidence on the nature and magnitude of the literacy gaps faced by OECD countries.

The purpose of this publication is to provide Canadians with the opportunity to become better informed of the obligations undertaken by Canada through its ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights, and to apprise them of the measures taken by the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to put it into effect. This report deals, in the first part, with general measures that apply to all governments. In the second part it looks at measures adopted by each government. This part contains a section on each government prepared by the government in question.

The term "socio-economic gradient" is often used to describe the relationships between social outcomes & socio-economic status (SES) for individuals in a specific community. This paper defines socio-economic gradients and suggests a standardized method for presenting them. It further sets out ten hypotheses about socio-economic gradients and community differences, describes the statistical models for testing them, and discusses their implications for social policy. The hypotheses are tested using data from two Canadian surveys, the National Longitudinal Survey of Children & Youth and Understanding the Early Years. The hypotheses examine the relationship between children's literacy & vocabulary skills and such factors as parents' SES, the average level of community SES, community homogeneity in SES; socio-economic gradients among low & high-status SES children; variation within & among communities in children's vocabulary skills; whether successful communities tend to be in close proximity to other successful communities; and the temporal stability of relationships between SES & child developmental outcomes. The findings show that there are several factors, both at family & community levels, which by themselves appear to have a small effect, but which taken together can have a substantial effect on children's early development.

This publication provides data and a comprehensive analysis of the literacy of francophones in Canada. Results are based on the International Adult Literacy Survey, conducted in 1994 and 1995 in Canada, as well as in 20 other countries in 1994 and 1998. This analysis examines the importance of literacy in industrialized countries, describing the issues for francophone communities are reviewing the available data. It paints a general picture of francophone literacy in Canada and discusses literacy in the context of language transfers to English. It also looks at the process of producing literacy and the literacy training of francophones, while attempting to sort out the impacts that various social and cultural factors have on literacy.