The Facts

• 41% of our residents lack basic prose literacy skills (this includes "those who could not be tested due to language barriers".)¹

• As of summer 2010, Imperial County ranks 58 out of 58 counties in California with an unemployment rate of 27.5%.²

• 20.4% of Imperial Valley residents older than 16 have less than a 9th grade education, with an additional 16.5% not having a high school diploma or equivalent.³

• 21.2% of the County residents are below poverty level in terms of income, with 19.7% of the families below poverty level.⁴

• 70.6% of our residents say they speak a language other than English at home.⁵

What Do These Facts Tell Us?

According to ProLiteracy:⁶

"Adult low literacy can be connected to almost every socio-economic issue in the United States."

They go on to say adults need literacy skills in order to be successful employees, to raise children who succeed in school, to stay healthier and to avoid crime.

According to the International Reading Association the relationship between poverty and illiteracy is "undeniable".⁷

"without a functional level of literacy children and their parents are not able to learn about good health practices and how to avoid infection and how to provide necessary nutrition"⁸

Footnotes

1. Ntl. Center for Ed. Stats. http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx.

2. http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/lfmonth/countyur-400c.pdf

3, 4. & 5. U.S. Census http://www.factfinder.census.gov

6. Proliteracy http://proliteracy.org/NetCommunity/page.aspx?pid=345&srcid=191

7. Intl. Reading Assoc. http://www.reading.org/downloads/meetings/ILD2007_literacy_facts.pdf

8. Intl. Reading Assoc. http://www.reading.org/downloads/meetings/2008%20Literacy%20and%20Health.pdf.