Demographic Trends/Research

• There are about 3.5 million people of working age (between 16 and 65) in British Columbia. Two-thirds or 2.3 million of them are either working or looking for work.
• A million working-age British Columbians have low levels of literacy – about 100,000 more than in 1994. This is roughly 35 per cent of British Columbians between the ages of 16 to 65. About 44 per cent of people in this age group have low numeracy levels that prevent them from getting and keeping good jobs.
• 64 per cent of the workers that have low literacy levels in B.C. are employed in major industries such as: commerce, manufacturing, construction, hotel and restaurant and health care and social services.
• Immigrant populations are key sources of labour force growth, but generally have low levels of literacy. An estimated 436,000 of the one million people with low literacy in B.C. are immigrants, mainly due to poor English language skills. This equates to 59 per cent of B.C.’s immigrant population, compared with 32 per cent of Canadian-born British Columbians with low literacy levels.
• Across Canada, 59 per cent of Aboriginal adults between 16 and 65 have low levels of literacy, compared with 41 per cent of non-Aboriginals.
• An unemployed person is about three times as likely to be at the lowest levels of literacy as someone who is employed, and those on social assistance have much lower literacy scores. Adults with the lowest level of literacy are about six times more likely to live in a household below the low-income cut-off than those with the highest level (47 per cent compared with eight per cent).