This approach did not consider people who graduate from high school with inadequate reading skills, those who lose their literacy skills after leaving school or those who are literate despite little formal education. Through the 1990s, the definition of literacy was broadened to recognize its social context as a set of skills changing through life. This definition shift is the foundation of the paper's argument, for the author concludes that literacy is an indicator of social, political and economic issues and that literacy problems must be understood and resolved in the context of the disadvantages that cause and perpetuate them. Sixteen per cent are non-readers. The highest rates of literacy are in the Western provinces, the lowest rate in the East.
Literacy rates are considerably lower among seniors.
Rates for men and women born in Canada are almost identical. Limited literacy is twice as high for francophones as for anglophones. Limited literacy is higher among the poor, prison inmates and people with disabilities. The causes of limited literacy are broad-based and interrelated. Children of parents with reading problems are more likely to have those problems themselves.