Numeracy

Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with and apply simple numerical concepts, functioning as the numerical counterpart to literacy. The charity National Numeracy describes it as understanding how mathematics is used in the real world and being able to apply it to make good decisions, as much about thinking and reasoning as about doing sums. Basic numeracy covers the core arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and extends to number sense, operation sense, computation, measurement, geometry, probability and statistics. Its absence, innumeracy, has been linked to worse financial, health and career outcomes and to distorted risk perception, while the researcher Ellen Peters has argued that realizing numeracy's benefits also depends on a person's confidence in their own numeric skills, not only the skills themselves.