The $1T Impact of Ignoring Dyslexia

Dyslexia is the trillion-dollar problem we don’t know we have.

Dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability that causes difficulty using or understanding written language. While only 5% of students are ever diagnosed, it is relatively common, impacting 15-20% of the population.

Because students with dyslexia struggle to read and write at grade level, by 4th grade when reading becomes the primary mode for learning, these students fall hopelessly behind. This has real societal impacts with dyslexic learners representing 48% of the prison population, 49% of the homeless population, and 31% of children in juvenile detention.

To find out how much of an impact this was, BCG partnered with the UCSF Dyslexia Center to study the economic cost of dyslexia to the state of California. We found that dyslexia will cost the state $12 billion this year, and a staggering $1 trillion dollars over the next 60 years.

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