To add, there was a slightly less than 50% rate reported for a low level of literacy, but this isn't the same as illiteracy. Most developed countries have defin

To add, there was a slightly less than 50% rate reported for a low level of literacy, but this isn't the same as illiteracy. Most developed countries have definitions that put around 10% of people as functionally illiterate, but also have definitions that put 20-30% of people as having very low levels of literacy, in fact the study that put Detroit at 47% puts it at roughly 25% nationwide. Further, this rate is based on an extrapolation from data from 25 years ago, done 22 years ago. Lastly, the literacy as the study defines it is based on a Congressional act which stipulates literacy in English. Those who don't know English are considered functionally illiterate in this study (and many others), despite being fully able to read and write in another language. e.g. read Spanish news, email, things at work, cooking recipes, software, manuals for their electronics. This obviously isn't optimal, government letters in English wouldn't be readable directly, but it's a world of difference compared to someone who is fully illiterate (which is a proxy for general education, too, and in this case often not applicable due to literacy/education in another language). Lastly the 47% figure carries a warning that it has confidence intervals larger than (-)5 at the 95% confidence level, how much it doesn't say but not a single other city carries this warning except one which has a 57% figure, and the rest of the country (and similar socioeconomic areas) are half the rate, so I would be completely uncomfortable ever citing this figure even in the context of 25 year old data, without at least finding out the actual confidence interval.