Why do California and New York, that are highly urban, have the worst literacy rate in USA?

[Cubus]

[BeMuse]

It might have something to do with the number of foreign born residents (immigrants). For example Florida is actually more urbanized than both New York and California. 97% of Florida’s population lived in metropolitan areas in 2020. For California it's something like 94% and New York is down around 88%. When you examine the immigrant populations across states and compare it to literacy rates though, it seems to line up a little better.

California foreign born persons 2016-2020: 26.6%

New York foreign born persons 2016-2020: 22.4%

Florida foreign born persons 2016-2020: 20.8%

Florida foreign born persons 2016-2020: 16.8%

Georgia foreign born persons 2016-2020: 10.2%

[BeMuse]

That second Florida number is Texas.

*Texas foreign born persons 2016-2020: 16.8%

[Cubus]

"97% of Florida’s population lived in metropolitan areas in 2020."

Depends how you define "metropolitan areas". I believe panhandle and interior are not included there.

[BeMuse]

Those are the numbers put out by the U. S. Census Bureau.

www.bebr.ufl.edu/.../census_summary_2020.pdf

The Orlando metro is in the interior and has a population of roughly 3 million people. Greater Tallahassee in the panhandle is roughly 400K people which is a mid sized city. Greater Gainesville is roughly 350K making ti a mid sized city. Greater Pensacola is also roughly 350K poeople in the panhandle. Greater Panama City in the panhandle is roughly 200K people.

[Cubus]

That's how I say - you have a very broad definiton of "metropolitan area" :D but it is not very accurate as people living within on countryside rarely visit cities

[BeMuse]

Whatever man 3 million people in a metro is country side to you huh... Here is the census criteria for 2020.

www2.census.gov/.../2020_Urban_Areas_FAQs.pdf

There is country side in the pandhandle and on the central ridge, but there are also midsize to larger cities connected by interstates. The criteria is for where the people actually live not where timber plantations, groves, cattle pasture, or vegetable farms exists. In Florida 97% of the people live in the cities in more dense housing conditions. It is what it is. Not my definition. It's the definition that is used for the entire USA.

[jshm2]

They don't

They have something like 20% of the USA's population between them. So it's actually a spurious correlation. You cannot always rely on such extrapolated statistics.

Using those same extrapolated facts, 70% of shootings are done by White Americans.

[DubiousIntentions]

Because there is such a diverse population that schools haven' teachers who can teach all these students in their own languages. And New York gangs don't care if they can read or write.

[cloud9vortex1234]

Why should they have to? Wouldn't be more efficient on the system if everybody was obligated to learn in 1 language. It would save a lot of time.

[DubiousIntentions]

@cloud9vortex1234 English is the official language of the US, and anyone immigrating here should be required to speak English. However, if you are a politician you are allowed to speak Gibberish.

[cloud9vortex1234]

I couldn't agree more.

[Bethany22]

In California, it's more fun playing at the beach than reading/doing homework, and in New York, there's also so many distractions from school work of fun things to do

[OlderAndWiser]

In this statistical set, is someone deemeed illiterate if they are not fluet in English? These rates may be heavily influenced by the number of emigrants in these states.

[Cubus]

"Nearly 1 in 4 people over the age of 15 in California lack the skills to decipher the words in this sentence." - that's how it's said

I guess it may be because of Latinos not learning English

[Lucy68]

I want to say most of these kids don't go to school let alone have anyone at home helping them to be honest

[jennifer_bloom]

My theory is that California might use illegal Mexican immigrants because they are cheap labour and New York has a bigger divide between rich and poor.

[NathanDavis]

a bit funny and ironic...

if the intention is mocking the perception of "knowledge" but also failing to understand how rates, ratio, and percentages do work... lol

[exitseven]

The urban schools in cities run by democrats are in the satchel of the teachers unions. The schools are failing and nobody is held accountable.

[FunkyMonkee]

It's where most of the democrats live. No brain, no effect!

[Anonymous]

I wonder if I can guess where this is going ;-) ... In fairness, Florida and Texas are not looking great though, huh?

[Cubus]

Yep, but still better than California and New York.

[BJP21]

The areas are hugely diverse not everyone speaks English.