2.8 million people in the U.S. can't read and write

The fact I find interesting is that since 1930, says Time Online, the number of illiterate people (people who were 14 years old and up who admitted to the census they couldn't read and write) is down by 1.3 million. The catch is that our population has increased by 17.4 million.

The other thing I find interesting is how the census categorized illiterate people since 1930. In 1930, the census people went around door to door and asked anyone who was 14 years or older if they could read and write. This was not accurate because there were many people who lied about their reading and writing abilities.

In 1940, the smarty pants census started asking them how many grade levels they had finished and they decided that if they had completed grade five or above that you were literate (not that they couldn't lie about that either).

So in 1948 they got the smart idea to combine both ideas, asking people what grade they had finished and if they could read and write. This is the what the US thinks are literate people, but what about what I, and probably a few others, think?

I think you should visit The Wonder of Whiffling. If you really want to know who is illiterate and who is a smarty pants then you should know what petrichor means. Also, a literate person's vocab should include the words/phrases wombat, snirtle, popjoy, and juck-cum-peng which respectively mean waste of money, brains, and time, to laugh in a quiet or restrained manor, to amuse oneself, imitating the sound made by a wooden-legged person walking. Did you know those?

I guess you just aren't literate.

I'm making this comment because I find it semi-crazy that there are people out there who make lists of words (not silly words like from Whiffling that were only used in certain historic contexts) that if people do not know, they are then illiterate.

Literacy changes everyday. There are also so many different types of literacy. For example, are you digitally and visually literate, pen and paper literate, computer and tech literate, socially literate? It goes on and on.

I honestly think that today you can't really say who is literate and who is not. It depends on where you're from, what society you're integrated into, what type of literacy you mean. I don't think someone can pin point exactly what it is anymore. At least you would need one hell of a census team and 25,000 very patient people.