One in five Danes struggle with reading

In the past decade, Danish adults have improved in basic reading and arithmetic skills, yet 18% still struggle with reading, unable to progress beyond basic text comprehension. This stagnation was revealed in the latest international PIAAC survey (2022-2023), which included adults aged 16 to 65. Minister for Children and Education, Mattias Tesfaye, expressed dissatisfaction with the slow progress, emphasizing that the decade-long trend hasn’t improved and concerns exist for both older individuals who felt underserved by past educational systems and younger generations entering the workforce with inadequate skills. To address this, Tesfaye advocates for proactive digital tools to aid adults, particularly parents of dyslexic children and integrating Danish lessons into the workplace. Denmark shows general advancement since the last PIAAC study, most notably among 25 to 34-year-olds and those with higher education, yet still lags behind Nordic counterparts. The PIAAC study also show that 17% of Danish adults have low arithmetic skills.