"The world these children are moving into is just not the place to enter without good literacy and numeracy skills," she said.

Government estimates suggest that on average an employed person could earn an extra £1,000 a year with improved numeracy skills.

Ensure that children have basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Children under the age of 5 have the best opportunity to absorb basics numeracy skills.

Unfortunately, it is evident that journalists often show poor numeracy skills.

Older adults have been associated with lower numeracy skills than younger adults.

Men have been identified to have higher numeracy skills than women.

Some studies seem to indicate young people of African heritage tend to have lower numeracy skills.

Millions more start school but drop out before gaining the basic literacy and numeracy skills required to escape poverty.

"This is critical, because as many as 90 million Americans have inadequate literacy and numeracy skills," the study said.