More (not so) fun facts:
54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level.
21% read below a 5th grade level, which is considered functionally illiterate.
High immigration numbers don’t fully explain it either, as first gen immigrants only make up about 1/3 of those with low literacy.
Reverse search brings up a Substack as the source for this image, but here’s a Snopes article from 2022 about the numbers that have been circulating for the past few years. It seems like the percentages for reading level are accurate, but where you draw the line for “illiteracy” is a subjective judgement call that not everybody agrees on (e.g. below 5th grade level). Also, anything talking about international rankings needs to be taken with a grain of salt because of differences in measurement/reporting methods.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/