The survey found that 8% of Brazilians were in absolute illiteracy situation and 30% had a very low level of ability: they are only able to find simple information in one-sentence statements, an ad or a magazine cover, for example.
Other 37% were able to locate information in short texts (a letter or a piece of news, for example), which could be considered as a basic level of literacy. The 25% who demonstrate full mastery of the skills tested were able to read longer texts, recognize more than one piece of information, compare the information contained in different texts and establish diverse relationships between them.
In general, these data confirmed the results verified in 2001, when the same instruments were applied in a similar sample.