In Canada, some groups that are likely to experience literacy challenges include:

• Canadians with fewer years of schooling
• Immigrants
• Indigenous Peoples
• Older Canadians

• PIAAC is a survey of adults aged 16-65 that assesses skills in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments.
• 4% of Canadians score below level 1 and can only interpret brief written texts on familiar topics to locate a single piece of information.
• 13% of Canadians score at level 1 and can locate single pieces of information in short written texts in the absence of distracting information.

• Indigenous students are students that self-identify as being of Indigenous ancestry (First Nations: Status or non-status, Métis and Inuit).
• There are 3,941 students from kindergarten to grade 12 who identified as Indigenous in the 2019-2020 school year for School Districts 61 (Greater Victoria ,62 (Sooke), 63 (Saanich) and 64 (The Gulf Islands).

• Only 65-76% of Indigenous students in BC graduate from high school compared to 76%-86% for non-indigenous students
• From 2005-2019, indigenous students had low rates of completion from the Greater Victoria School District (33%-65%)

• The 2016 Canadian census indicates the number of people living in Victoria who reported a first language other than English or French. Indigenous languages in Canada are reported on a separate document.
• The bar graph on the left shows the languages with the greatest number of speakers living in the Victoria Metropolitan Area in 2016. Please note that there are many more languages with fewer speakers than shown here
• Altogether, 51,905 people in Victoria reported a language other than English as their first language in 2016. That is, 14.3% of the population.

• Children with learning differences are more likely than children without learning differences to have low levels of literacy
• There are 5,299 K-12 students with “special needs” in School Districts 61, 62, 63, and 64 in the 2019/2020 school year
• The term “special needs” as it is used by school districts can include a range of strengths and weaknesses and does not necessarily point to low literacy skills.
• However, learning differences frequently co-occur with other types of special needs.

• The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a global assessment for adult skills in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments.
• Literacy skill levels of Indigenous populations are lower than non-Indigenous populations in Canada.
• Indigenous Canadians with all types of post-secondary education perform the same as Non-Indigenous Canadians with the same levels of education. The literacy gap disappears with higher levels of education.

• The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) surveyed people aged 16-65 on reading, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments.
• On average, recent immigrants and established immigrants aged 16-65 show lower literacy proficiency scores than people born in Canada
• Recent immigrants and established immigrants had similar scores which suggests that the time spent in Canada may not have a large effect on literacy proficiency

• Over half of adults who recently attended school with learning differences (age 15+) required some kind of educational aid or service
• Adults with learning differences were more likely to report that they needed extended test time and teacher’s aides or tutors, which were predominantly met.
• Technology-based supports were less likely to be needed but adults who did report needing them were less likely to receive them.

• In Canada, adults with learning differences are more likely to have overall lower rates of completing education (Stats Canada, Canadian Survey on Disabilities, 2012)
• 33% of adults with learning differences aged 15-65 reported not completing high school compared to 13.1% of adults without learning differences
• 35.6% of adults with learning differences reported completing post-secondary qualifications compared to 61.1% of adults without learning differences.

• Fewer years of education is a known risk factor for low levels of literacy proficiency
• In the Greater Victoria School District (61), 16% of all students did not graduate from high school in the 2018/2019 school year.
• Out of 128 Indigenous students, only 40% graduated high school and out of 202 special needs students only 66% graduated high school in 2018/2019.

• Between 40 and 50% of Indigenous people age 65 to 74 have no certificate, diploma, or degree (Stats Canada, Aboriginal Peoples Survey, 2012)
• 60% of Indigenous people 75 years and older do not have a certificate, diploma, or degree
• This is linked to the fact that 23% of Indigenous seniors have low income and have food insecurity

• The 2016 Census reveals that there were 5,280 immigrants over the age of 45 in Victoria in 2018
• Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada is one of the English language programs to help adult immigrants learn English. Most of their learners are between 35-55 years old but they have some as old as 80.
• Another service organization is Anglican Diocese of British Columbia. They deal with private refugees, while ICA – which puts on the LINC courses – deals with government sponsored ones. 50% of the refugees they deal with are aged 50+. Close to 60% of them need literacy training, even in their own languages, but some of them come with PhDs.

• 47% of older seniors (those aged 75+) had disabilities and 32% of younger seniors (those 65 to 74 years) had disabilities
• This report, in addition to other Canadian Surveys on Disability, reveals that many disabilities co-occur with other types of disabilities. 35.1% of seniors 65 to 74 had 4 or more disabilities compared to 44.2% of their older counterpart.
• Co-occurance of learning disabilities with others is not made clear in this version of the Survey on Disability but the 2012 version shows that physical disabilities are the most likely (96.1% in 65 and older) to co-occur in seniors.

• These are some of the activities requiring digital skills that older adults, over the age of 65, took part in during a study period of 2018-2019.
• The most common digital activities of seniors did was used word processing software (43.7%), followed by copied or moved files or folders digitally (41.2%), and used your smartphone as a GPS device (33.8%).
• In total, 71% of seniors used the internet in 2018.