What Is Data Literacy and Why Should You Care?

How do you differentiate high class and middle class? Obviously, by (annual) income and/or net worth. But money is just a result. People with money usually have unique set of skills that sets them apart.

In medieval times, reading and writing skill in itself would be sufficient to set you apart. Literacy was not that common and was mostly characteristic of upper-middle or higher class.

This is mostly because reading and writing has very broad use. It’s not niche. It is and was used in almost every aspect of personal and professional life. Reading also improves your knowledge dramatically.

So what is such a skill in 21st century?

I would like to make a case it’s the ability to understand data and work with it. It is THE differentiator of modern age, because data is everywhere.

In fact, 90% of data has been created in thelast 2 years. Predictions show there will be about 50 billion connected devices by 2030. Currently there are around 3,5 billion smartphones, representing people with access to the Internet in their pocket, reading articles, browsing social networks, chatting with friends and much more. Data is everywhere in personal life as well as business.

Here are some examples from personal life:

Now obviously there’s much value hidden in data for companies:

There are even much more advanced use-cases that I don’t want to get into just yet.

The point is, humans first started using language to improve communication around 50 thousand years ago. Nowadays, we are enabling more and more devices and machines to generate data and try to „talk to us“. Servers, smartphones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, Smart Home devices, ERPs, CRMs, IoT devices, and all kinds of sensors — all generating enormous and unprecedented amounts of data.

And yet — what’s the current status of our data literacy?

The research surveyed 7,377 business decision makers (junior managers and above). Respondents across Europe, Asia and the US.