A child growing up in a home with at least 80 books will have a greater level of literacy in adulthood.
The average number of books in a U.S. household is 114, according to a just-published paper called " Scholarly culture: How books in adolescence enhance adult literacy, numeracy and technology skills in 31 societies ." 114 is a good number. The paper's authors studied 160,000 adults and found that just having 80 or more books in a home results in adults with significantly higher levels of literacy, numeracy, and information communication technology (ICT) skills. The paper finds, "Growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in these areas beyond the benefits accrued from parental education or own educational or occupational attainment." The effect was found to be powerful in: Children from such homes who ended up attaining just a high-school-level education "become as literate, numerate and technologically apt in adulthood as university graduates who grew up with only a few books." It’s not quite the more books the better The study, led by Dr.