Ray Dalio

Factual · Field building and careers

“And if you take the average, 60% of Americans have below a sixth grade reading level, 60% of Americans.”

Ray Dalio, interviewee · 22 February 2025 · Full Transcript: Ray Dalio on The Tucker Carlson Show (Singju Post)

60% of Americans read below a sixth-grade level.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2025-02-22 against the best available national estimate of US adult literacy expressed as a reading grade level (e.g., analyses of PIAAC or NAAL data). The claim is about 60% of American adults. True: an authoritative estimate puts the share of US adults reading below a sixth-grade level at 55-65%. Mostly true: the estimate is 50-54% or 66-70%. Mixed: the estimate is 40-49%. Mostly false: the 60% figure rests on a different measure stated as a sixth-grade reading level (e.g., the share below PIAAC Level 3 proficiency without a grade-level mapping), or on a narrower population stated as all Americans, or the best grade-level estimate is 30-39%. False: authoritative data put the share well below that, under 30%.

Evidence

1. Do More Than Half of Americans Read Below 6th-Grade Level? Snopes · 2 August 2022

   “It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab.”

2. Do More Than Half of Americans Read Below 6th-Grade Level? Snopes · 2 August 2022

   “Furthermore, it's entirely possible that the 54% figure has changed — either for better or worse — in the two years since it was published.”

3. PIAAC Results U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics · 2024

   “Between 2017 and 2023, there were increases in the percentages of adults performing at the lowest proficiency level (Level 1 or below) in both literacy and numeracy: in literacy this percentage increased from 19 to 28 percent and in numeracy from 29 to 34 percent.”

4. Adult Literacy in the United States U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics · July 2019

   “In contrast, one in five U.S. adults (21 percent) has difficulty completing these tasks (figure 1).”

Reasoning

An APM Research Lab analysis, reported by Snopes, estimates that 54% of US adults aged 16 to 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level (E1). The criteria place this in the 50-54% band, which is mostly true. Snopes notes the figure may have changed since publication (E2). NCES's 2023 PIAAC results show more adults at the lowest literacy level (E3), but that is a proficiency level with no grade-level mapping, so it does not replace the 54% estimate.

Cite this claim

Ray Dalio, “60% of Americans read below a sixth-grade level.” (said 22 February 2025). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_8d76c0012433, method 0.1.0+c876030c. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_8d76c0012433