Congratulations, District: You can probably read this post! According to a nationwide survey conducted by Central Connecticut State University, the District weighs in as the second-most literate city in the entire nation. Washington, D.C., comes in second after Seattle, Washington, the city that perennially takes the top slot. There are some surprises on the list, including massive gains for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which rose to the 4th place spot after hovering near the bottom of the top 10 for the last few years. Literacy in tony Portland, Oregon, isn’t nearly so strong as you might expect of a city whose quality of living standard ranks among the highest in the entire world. (Note that Mercer ranks quality of life in D.C. just below that of Portland but several rankings above that of Seattle.)

You may give yourself a pat on the back, reader, but know that this coup for the District does not change the fact that illiteracy remains a major problem in the DMV region. The Central Connecticut State University study pins its findings to “key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources” — which can disguise the severity of the problem at the low-literacy level of the curve.

The National Center for Education Statistics found that the below-basic-literacy rate in the District fell from 21 to 19% between 1992 and 2003 — but below-basic-literacy rates in surrounding PG, Arlington, and Montgomery Counties all soared over the same period. Has the problem of illiteracy in the area seen a legitimate reduction, or have low-literacy readers migrated away from the city?

Image courtesy of the American Library Association READ poster generator