This study investigated various reading and writing abilities among 25- and 35-year-old residents of Linkoping, Sweden, and assessed the extent to which these individuals' abilities could be regarded as satisfactory for their needs. In all, 377 subjects were tested on the following skills: alphabet recognition, copying ability, reading rate, reading comprehension, "practical" reading ability, essay writing, and spelling. A questionnaire gathered information concerning subjects' general and vocational educations and present occupations, parents' educations and occupations, average amount of reading and writing per day, self-evaluation of reading and writing ability in relation to perceived needs, and a subjective judgment of the importance of such abilities as measured by the different tests. Data revealed that, although many adults' skill levels improved between the age at which they left school and the age of 35, prolonged schooling during adolescence led to even greater abilities. A substantial minority of adults did not reach the level of ability considered necessary for functional literacy, and more than 30% of all subjects found their abilities insufficient in some manner. (KS)