The world is a big place

The percentage of the population that's illiterate is way higher than it has any business being.

Like "can't read at an elementary school level".

Wow, those figures are shocking. US of A, 1st economy in the world, 1st military power in the world and our space, 36th in literacy rate. I am sad for fellow Americans :(
- The US should be doing much better in all categories based on its wealth alone, but this is kind of an important factor.
  34% of adults lacking literacy proficiency were born outside the US.
  
  With the two high stats being on the North East, and the low stats being in the south west near the border with Mexico.
  So that makes me wonder what percentage of the 34% that were not born here are literate in another language
  Because I know I have met a number of people who have moved here and haven't learned English yet, but if you pass a translation app between each other, they can read it in their native language.
- The US ranks 36th in literacy.
  This is a deceptive statistic. It merely indicates that many countries like Uzbekistan and North Korea falsely report 100% literacy rates. Look here. The USA literacy rate is actually about the same as that of other wealthy Western democracies.
  
  North Korea probably does have high literacy so the people can read and understand all the propaganda.
  
  Promoted to mod of and banned from c/Pyongyang in one comment
  
  You are right. Very interesting link, thanks !
The percentage of the population that’s illiterate is way higher than it has any business being.
Like “can’t read at an elementary school level”.
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics” - Mark Twain
Not in your link, but I found the same statistics as your link in another with a critical piece of information:
"According to researchers, 4 out of 5 Americans 18 and over possess medium to high proficiency in English reading and writing." source
These statistics, both your link and mine, may only be measuring literacy in English.
So looking to get a clue how many may have literacy in another language:
"Today, 13.8 percent of the nation's residents are foreign-born" source
So at least a percentage of those being counted as USA illiterate may indeed be literate in another language that isn't English.
- The word "may" is doing all the heavy lifting here.
  
  Of course it is a low confidence answer for that non-English but literate population. I'm not saying that 100% of those called illiterate are actually literate in another language. I'm saying that the statement that the illiteracy rate is as high as posted is likely wrong because it only accounts for English.
  The "may" statement you're taking issue with is a quick attempt to find out possibly how big that non-English but literate population might be. Its not a definitive answer. You're welcome to spend your time chasing a more precise number. I'd exhausted my interested when I got my number.
  
  I'm not going to say it was your intention, but it reads like "immigrants are lowering the literacy rate". It's something I've seen too often.
  Regardles, from the page you linked:
  54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level
  That would not be explained by a 13.8 percent of foreign-born residents.
  According to researchers, 4 out of 5 Americans 18 and over possess medium to high proficiency in English reading and writing.
  The emphasis is because "American" is not the same as "foreign-born resident".
  
  I’m not going to say it was your intention, but it reads like “immigrants are lowering the literacy rate”. It’s something I’ve seen too often.
  I'm having trouble seeing the mental gymnastics to get that reading when I'm saying that the immigrants are unfairly being called illiterate, when they ARE literate, just in a different language.
  The emphasis is because “American” is not the same as “foreign-born resident”.
  I'm discarding any of the statistics from that page I linked because I don't trust their methodology. I linked it not to support OPs argument about the rate if illiteracy, but to discredit it for being questionable based. The stats from my linked page match much of the stats from their linked page. My guess is that both draw from the same flawed measures and should not be trusted.
Man, without a Department o'Education those numbers will get worse.

He didn't know America had mountains.

Then he's immounterate
- Insurmountable.
That is willful ignorance, not illiteracy. People talk about the rocky mountains, they are mentioned in songs...
- He just thought they were not real.
- Yeah, he was going to take the Rocky Mountain Way. He's was assured it made up for the shortcomings of the previous way.
- Also dude is from California. I don’t know how you don’t know about Americas mountains there. Iowa or Illinois, sure, the mountains are very far away from you. But anywhere west of the Rockies you’ve got too much geography too close to not know that there are mountains in America
According to a third party on X

Figuratively infigurate