Konservative Entscheidungen. Größenordnung des funktionalen Analphabetismus in Deutschland

Initial results of the Level One Survey Germany (leo.) show that functional illiteracy affects 14.5 percent of working-age population (18–64 years of age). This translates into 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills in Germany. We will first introduce the method and design of the study. We will then explain the decisions taken in order to obtain the estimate of the dimension of functional illiteracy. These decisions were carefully taken, and they have contributed to a rather conservative estimate of functional illiteracy in Germany. There are three parts where our calculations lean towards an underestimate of the phenomenon rather than an overestimate. Hence, we can conclude that the here reported number of 7.5 million people who lack functional literacy skills is likely to be a conservative representation of the illiteracy issue in Germany.