Only Louisiana and New Mexico Have Less Illiteracy Among White Adults Than North Carolina, April 11, 1923

Illiterate Native Whites. . . 10 Years Old and Over in 1910 and 1920

Based on the 13th and 14th Censuses. Average of white illiteracy in the United States 8 percent in 1910 and 2 percent in 1920. Average in North Carolina 12.3 percent in 1910 and 8.2 percent in 1920. Only two states made a poorer showing—Louisiana and New Mexico.

The white illiterates in Denmark are only 2 per 1,000 inhabitants; in North Carolina they number 82 per thousand, or 41 times as many.

Almost nobody but the feebleminded are illiterate in Denmark. Illiteracy does not mean feeblemindedness in North Carolina as in Denmark—not yet at least, but someday in the early future it may have some such significance in this state.

Department of Rural Social Economics, University of North Carolina.

From the University of North Carolina News Letter, April 11, 1923