Advocating for Adult Numeracy Skills 

Prepared for the National Coalition for Literacy for AEFL Week 2026
By Heidi Schuler, Past-President of the Adult Numeracy Network (ANN) 

It’s National Adult Education Family Literacy Week, and I want to introduce you to a particularly important subject often lost in advocacy conversations: numeracy. If numeracy is unfamiliar to you, you’re not alone. I find it helpful to compare numeracy to literacy.  

Adult education programs serve adult learners whose goals are to improve reading and writing skills to make everyday tasks more accessible. The same is true for numeracy. Adult learners want to improve their math skills to make everyday tasks, including personal finance decisions, more manageable. 

Literacy requires more than simply memorizing the alphabet, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Likewise, numeracy requires more than quick recall of numbers, place value,  and equations. Both literacy and numeracy anticipate that the learner will apply those elements and draw on what they know to make sense of the world around them. Essential to the application of both literacy and numeracy is the need for adult learners to solve problems and think critically in our technology-driven society. 

According to the Adult Numeracy Network (ANN) and adapted from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), numeracy is defined as: the ability to access, use, interpret, and communicate mathematical information and ideas, in order to engage in and manage the mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life.

Numerate behavior, as described in the 2003 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey, involves managing a situation or solving a problem in real context by responding to information about mathematical ideas that are represented in a range of ways (e.g. charts, graphs, patterns, percentages, etc.), and requires activation of a range of enabling knowledge, behaviors, and processes. To learn more, explore the infographic and information here.

Why It Matters: U.S. Adults Struggle to Keep Up

The 2023 Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC Cycle 2) results revealed an important message for educators in the United  States and around the globe: adults aged 16-65 are struggling to keep up in math and numeracy skills in an increasingly complex world. Data shows that U.S. adults scored, on average, 258 points in literacy (close to the OECD average), 249 points in numeracy (below the OECD average), and 247 points in adaptive problem-solving (below the OECD average). These results are reported as averages on a 500-point scale and categorized into six proficiency levels each with its  own score range. Take a look at this graph to compare U.S. results and participating countries in literacy, numeracy, and adaptive-problem solving. 

More than 1 in 3 Adults Scored at or Below Level 1 

If we drill down into the data for the levels of proficiency for numeracy, we learn more about each level and the skills adults can demonstrate within those levels. According to OECD findings, 34% of adults scored at or below Level 1 proficiency. At Level 1, they can do basic maths with whole numbers or money, understand decimals, and find single  pieces of information in tables or charts, but may struggle with tasks needing multiple steps (e.g. solving a proportion). 

Those below Level 1 can add and subtract small numbers. Adults at Levels 4 or 5 are top performers (12% in the United States, 14% on average across OECD countries and  economies). They can calculate and understand rates and ratios, interpret complex graphs, and critically evaluate statistical claims. Importantly, there is a stark contrast in employability and earning potential for adults functioning at or below numeracy proficiency Level 1 and those at Level 4 and higher. For complete task descriptions, score range, and sample items for all six levels, click here. 

Influencing Policy and Practice 

These selected PIAAC data reports increase our understanding of the importance of numeracy and serve as a bellwether for what is to come if we do nothing to influence policy and practice. When it comes to math in adult and higher education, educators must move beyond test preparation (e.g. GED), rote memorization, and speed, and spend more instructional time on helping adult learners develop a working knowledge of numeracy skills and situations that require math application, and in particular discuss how math impacts them in their everyday lives and workplace settings. If we leave behind those at the lowest levels of  numeracy proficiency, what will happen to them and to their children? What will the workforce look like? Whose voices will be silenced in civic discourse about our democracy and those elected and  appointed to oversee education?  We each have a responsibility to consider the role of numeracy in our respective careers. 

For the Adult Numeracy Network (ANN), this work also is part of our mission. To learn more, get access to ANN’s award-winning newsletter, The Math Practitioner, with each issue full of articles, lessons, rich activities, practical ideas, and stories from adult numeracy classrooms across the United States.

OECD (2024), Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World?: Survey of Adult Skills 2023, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b263dc5d-en.