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The interactive Prose Literacy Map from the Canadian Council on Learning is based on the 2006 Census and a 2003 StatsCan International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey.
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Prose literacy is defined as "the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information from texts including editorials, news stories, brochures and instruction manuals."
and, presumably, election brochures. This is about comprehension in either of Canada's two official languages, not spelling or grammar or smarts - a point missed by many commenters under this CBC article.
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Level 3 is "the minimum threshold for coping with the demands of the global knowledge-based economy". Lower rates of literacy, represented by light orange through red on the map, show the proportion of the population in each region that scored at Level 2 or lower. Or about half of us.
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Yikes!
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