The aim of this article is to investigate the predictive capacity of major determinants of literacy proficiency that are associated with a variety of contexts including school, home, work, community and leisure. An identical structural model based on previous research is fitted to data for 18 countries. The results show that even after accounting for all factors education remains the most important predictor of literacy proficiency. In all countries, however, the total effect of education is significantly mediated through further learning occurring at work, at home and in the community. Therefore, the job and other literacy-related factors complement education in predicting literacy proficiency. This result points to a virtual cycle of lifelong learning, particularly to how educational attainment influences other learning behaviours throughout life. In addition, results show that home background as measured by parents' education is also a strong predictor of literacy proficiency, but in many countries this occurs only if a favourable home background is complemented by some post-secondary education. (Contains 1 footnote.)