This dashboard section presents the TRAILS framework for measuring basic and transferable literacies across Europe. It focuses on a set of decision-relevant skills that individuals need in order to navigate increasingly complex labour-market, financial, digital, civic, health, and sustainability-related environments.
The underlying approach moves beyond a narrow understanding of basic skills as literacy and numeracy alone. In the TRAILS framework, basic and transferable skills are understood as multidimensional literacies: practical forms of knowledge, reasoning, and applied competence that support everyday decision-making, adaptability, resilience, and social participation in the context of digitalisation, automation, artificial intelligence, and the green transition.
The indicators presented here are based on harmonised data from the TRAILS-I survey. They are organised into twelve literacy domains and grouped into four broader skill dimensions: Foundational Decision Skills, Digital-Era Functional Skills, Civic and Green Skills, and Human and Social Transferable Skills. The dashboards allow users to explore how these literacies vary across countries, regions, demographic groups, socioeconomic groups, and skills-matching statuses.
The purpose of this section is not to rank countries or population groups in isolation, but to provide an interactive evidence base for understanding where literacy strengths and gaps are located. The results should be read as descriptive, policy-relevant patterns that can support discussion on education, training, lifelong learning, digital inclusion, and skills development across Europe. The deliverable explicitly frames these measures as part of a broader classification and measurement architecture for basic and transferable skills, rather than as a causal analysis of labour-market transitions or occupational mobility.
The dashboard covers twelve literacy indicators grouped into four skill dimensions:
These dimensions are designed to organise related competences into interpretable groups. They should not be understood as completely separate skill areas. Many literacies are connected: for example, digital finance combines financial and digital competence, while sustainable financial literacy connects financial reasoning with environmental and sustainability-related knowledge.
The indicators are constructed from selected TRAILS-I survey questions. Most literacy indices are based on three questions, each capturing a core element of the relevant domain. Responses are coded into binary competence indicators: a respondent receives one point when they demonstrate the intended knowledge, reasoning, or decision-relevant response, and zero otherwise.
For most domains, the final index is an additive score ranging from 0 to 3. A score of 0 means that none of the measured components were demonstrated, while a score of 3 means that all three components were demonstrated.
Two indicators use wider scales because of their specific measurement structure. Artificial Intelligence Literacy ranges from 0 to 7, reflecting a broader set of AI-related knowledge and judgement components. Data and Programming Literacy ranges from 0 to 5, based on respondents’ confidence across five data- and programming-related tasks.
Higher scores indicate that respondents demonstrated more of the specific competencies included in the indicator. They should not be interpreted as a complete assessment of a person’s overall ability, intelligence, or occupational performance.
The information is presented through a set of thematic pages. Each page examines the same twelve literacy indicators from a different analytical perspective:
The charts and maps present weighted descriptive averages. They show how literacy scores are distributed across countries, regions, and population groups, but they do not establish causal relationships.
Differences between groups may reflect several overlapping factors, including education, age, income, occupation, access to technology, institutional context, social background, and exposure to specific life or work experiences. For this reason, the results should be interpreted as population-level associations rather than as evidence that one characteristic directly causes a particular literacy score.
Users should also take care when comparing indicators with different scales. Most indicators range from 0 to 3, but Artificial Intelligence Literacy ranges from 0 to 7 and Data and Programming Literacy from 0 to 5. Comparisons are therefore most meaningful within the same indicator, across countries, regions, or groups.
Digitalisation, automation, artificial intelligence, and the green transition are reshaping the skills individuals need to participate effectively in work, education, markets, institutions, and society. Technical expertise remains important, but it is not sufficient on its own.
Individuals also need broader decision-relevant literacies: the ability to understand financial risks, plan for retirement, navigate health information, use digital financial tools safely, assess media content, understand AI, work with data, participate in civic life, respond to environmental challenges, and collaborate across social and cultural differences.
These literacies are transferable because they can support adaptation across different occupations, sectors, and stages of life. They help individuals interpret information, evaluate choices, respond to uncertainty, and engage with changing economic and social environments.
You may find additional information regarding the data and the methodology used in this report.