Photo by Angel Hernandez (Anher), courtesy of Pixabay.com.
The National Center for Education Statistics in their last report in 2003, reported that 33.5 percent of the population 16 years and over in Los Angeles County lackedbasic prose literacy skills. This was up from 20.4 percent in 1992.
The annual America's Most Literate Cities study of Central Connecticut State University has ranked 88 U.S. cities for literacy since 2003 based upon newspaper circulation data, use of internet for news gathering or book purchasing, magazine and journal circulation in local market, bookseller data, educational attainment and library usage. Their 2014 ranking placed Los Angeles overall in 63rd place. Long Beach, the only other city in the rankings in Los Angeles County, placed a bit below Los Angeles in 67th place. New York ranked in 20th place. Other California cities (San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Ana) ranked better. The literacy strength of Los Angeles seemed best reflected in the categories of local internet usage for news and book purchasing and newspaper circulation. The literacy strength of Long Beach seemed best reflected in local bookseller data.
