Literacy & Numeracy

Between 2011 and 2012, the OECD administered the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) which provides internationally comparable measures of literacy and numeracy skills. These are essential key cognitive and workplace skills that are necessary for successful participation in the economy and society of the 21st century. In addition, it looks at the relationships between skills proficiency, a range of socio-demographic characteristics and outcomes across the entire Canadian population.

Nova Scotia’s PIAAC results indicate that those who were employed scored about 20 points higher in literacy and about 25 points higher in numeracy than those not in the labour force. Persons in the latter two groups scored similarly across both measures (literacy and numeracy).

Literacy and numeracy scores in Nova Scotia were comparatively similar across the lower three employment income quintiles. Increased literacy and numeracy scores are correlated with the next highest income quintile and even higher scores are observed in the highest quintile. Numeracy scores were lower than literacy scores across all income quintiles. However, the difference between literacy and numeracy scores was smaller in the higher quintiles.