A significant portion of the adult population in the UK has numeracy skills below grade C at GCSE level. This presents high costs to individuals and society in the form of lower individual wages, losses in productivity, and forgone tax revenue.

Our team was commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to explore evidence around the numeracy skill level of adults in the UK, and the policy landscape around adult skills over the last 20 years. We analysed Wave 11 of the UK Understanding Society database to determine what factors are correlated with low numeracy attainment and created a search strategy to systematically review the academic and grey literature on adult numeracy policy from the UK and other OECD countries. Our systematic review and data analysis was supplemented by the testimony of experts in four semi-structured interviews and a nine-person focus group.

Our resulting report and evidence map provide a comprehensive overview of the literature and identify gaps and areas to target for future research.

➥ Read our report here.

➥ Explore our Evidence Map here.