In developed countries such as our own, it is estimated that 20% of 15 year olds have not obtained a level of reading fluency that allows them to participate in adult life.
44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.
60 percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level - far below the level needed to earn a living wage.
Out-of-school reading habits of students have shown that even 15 minutes a day of independent reading can expose students to more than a million words of text in a year.
There are almost half a million words in our English Language - the largest language on earth, incidentally - but a third of all our writing is made up of only twenty-two words.
Twenty-six percent of children who were read to three or four times in the last week by a family member recognized all letters of the alphabet. This is compared to 14 percent of children who were read to less frequently.
Just over one in four Americans surveyed in a new poll said that they didn’t read a single book within the last 12 months.
Younger adults are slightly more likely to read for pleasure—83 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds compared with 78 percent ages 30-49, 81 percent ages 50-64 and 80 percent of people over 65 years of age.
Fifty-six percent of people who had not completed high school reported reading for pleasure, compared with 92 percent who had graduated from college.
Students who don't read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school.
15% of the United States population has specific reading disorders.
33% of U.S. high school graduates never read a book after high school.
15% of U.S. students are dyslexic.
Statistically, two thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.
53% of fourth graders admitted to reading recreationally “almost every day,” although only 20% of eighth graders could say the same.
The greatest amount of brain growth occurs between birth and age five. In fact, by age 3, roughly 85% of the brain’s core structure is formed. In contrast, the majority of our investments are made in the traditional education years of K-12, which begin at age five.
The average child from a professional family hears 215,000 words per week; a child from a working class family hears 125,000 words per week; and a child from a family receiving welfare benefits hears 62,000 words per week.
Children’s academic successes at ages 9 and 10 can be attributed to the amount of talk they hear from birth through age 3.
The single most significant factor influencing a child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school.
In middle-income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.