Adult Literacy Rate — methodology
Category: Society & Education · Unit: % of population · Published annual
What this metric measures
Proportion of adults (15+) with at least Level 3 literacy skills on the PIAAC scale.
Why it matters: Literacy underpins participation in the workforce and civic life. Low literacy limits economic mobility.
Source & provenance
- Publisher
- ABS
- Update frequency
- annual
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
How the score is computed
The score is a 0–100 normalisation of the latest observation, compared to a baseline window. The traffic-light rating (RAG) reflects both the absolute level and the recent trend.
- Direction
- Higher is better
- Trend window
- 120 months
- Baseline
- Last 10 years
Thresholds:
{
"red_max_pct_of_baseline": 95,
"amber_min_pct_of_baseline": 95,
"green_min_pct_of_baseline": 102
}See related corrections at /corrections, or the live data and chart at https://www.australiametrics.org/metric/literacy-rate.