Literacy Facts

Where New Mexico Stands 20% of New Mexicans age 16 and older have literacy level 1 skills (See Note *) 46% of New Mexico's population is at literacy level 2 or below 25% of New Mexico's population age 25 and older lack a high school diploma or the equivalent Where Grant County Stands 22% of Grant County at literacy level 1 51% at literacy level 2 or below 29.5% have less than a 12th grade education

Census Definition of Literacy: A person aged 7 and above who can both read and write with understanding in any language. A person who can only read but cannot write, is not literate.   * Statistics from National Institute for Literacy - see 'Literacy Links' for their web site

* NOTE: Prose literacy is the ability to understand and use information contained in various kinds of textual material, and requires the reader to locate a single piece of information in a short text.
Document literacy reflects the knowledge and skills used to process information from documents, and requires the reader to locate pieces of information based on a literal match.

Quantitative literacy is the ability to perform numerical operations in everyday life, and requires the reader to perform a single, relatively simple, arithmetic operation.