This paper summarizes the main results of a survey on literacy conditions of Brazilian youths and adults. The data were collected in 2001 from a nationally representative sample of the population, aged 15 to 64. Respondents were submitted to a reading test before answering a questionnaire aimed at providing information about their educational background, their uses of written language in different contexts as well as their judgments about their own literacy capacities and predisposition. After discussing the relevance of such a survey and some of the theoretical and methodological issues it involves, the literacy levels emerging from the test are described as well as some of the literacy practices to which they correspond. Finally, the correlation between literacy levels and some intervening variables, among which formal schooling stands out, is analyzed.
Literacy; Illiteracy; Assessment
