If you find it hard to calculate a tip on your restaurant bill or figure out how much interest you will pay on borrowed money, many of your neighbours are likely having the same problems.

New information presented by the Canadian Council on Learning shows there are huge disparities across Canada, across Manitoba and even across Winnipeg when it comes to basic math skills.

Mantioba is on par with the Canadian average of how many of us have the numeracy skills considered necessary in a knowledge-driven economy, according to the CCL.

About 23 per cent of Manitobans have level one numeracy skills. It's hard to define exactly what that means in terms of day-to-day life, but that group would likely have trouble calculating the tip on a restaurant bill, says CCL Senior Research Analyst Jarrett Laughlin.

Another 34 per cent of Manitobans have level two skills, which means that calculating a tip is easy enough, but determining the interest on a loan would likely be a challenge.

Those two groups combined – 57 per cent of Manitobans – don't have the math skills considered "basic" today by literacy experts, says Laughlin.

That figure is about on par with the Canadian average of 55 per cent.

Those figures are "concerning," but not new, says Laughlin.

"What's new is the ability to drive down deeper and look at neighbourhood and community levels," he says.

The CCL mapped out numeracy across Canada using data from the last international literacy study, which was conducted in 2003.

"One side of the street might be comprised of people with adequate skills and across the street it might be a different story," Laughlin says.

In Winnipeg, and in general, better numeracy goes along with positive social and economic conditions. The skills also relate to age, Laughlin says, with younger people generally scoring better on numeracy tests than older people.

Older people grew up in a time where life was generally less demanding of their numeracy skills and using those skills often is the best way of improving them, Laughlin says.

Individuals can keep those skills sharp by keeping them in use – at work or by doing Sudoku puzzles, he says.

Improving numeracy skills is important for many reasons, he says. For one, less numerate communities are more likely to make poorer financial choices. On a broader scale, low numeracy has economic consequences.  

Laughlin says the CCL mapped out numeracy – and other factors related to total literacy – because it is important for anyone providing literacy programs to target them to the people who need them the most.

Compared to other countries, Canada ranks near the top in childhood literacy and in the top ten when it comes to adults, says Laughlin.

On the Canadian Council on Learning website, you can find more information and maps of other kinds of literacy, including prose literacy, document literacy and health literacy.

The numbers are based on International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), conducted by Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2003. The results were mapped using the 2006 population of Canada.