Melbourne, Nov 28: The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed that nearly 50 percent of the adult population do not have the literacy skills to ‘meet the complex demands of everyday life and work.’

According to the bureau’s 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, only 53 per cent Australians aged 15-74 could find and use complex information on job applications, payroll forms and bus schedules, reports News.com.au.

It was also found that only 47 per cent have the numeracy skills ‘required to effectively manage and respond to the mathematical demands of diverse situations’.

The survey revealed that 47 per cent of Australians aged between 15 and 74 do not understand the content of newspaper and magazine articles.

However, it was found that Australian women have better literacy levels with newspapers and magazines than men, but more men scored higher in understanding forms and documents.

According to the survey, more women (56 per cent) than men (52 per cent) have the minimum requirement to meet life’s demands when judged on ‘prose’ literature.

When it comes to document-based literacy, 55 per cent of men met minimum requirements, ahead of 51 per cent of women.

Men (53 per cent) are more numerate than women (42 per cent).

The ACT, Western Australia and South Australia have the country’s highest number of people meeting the minimum requirements in literacy and numeracy.

Tasmania had the highest number of survey respondents with literacy levels in the lowest category.

The number of people with the lowest ‘prose’ literacy levels has fallen from 20 per cent of the population in 1996, to 17 per cent last year.

The lowest ability of document-based literacy also fell from 20 per cent in 1996 to 18 per cent of adults in the last year. (ANI)