What is Data Literacy?
The ability to read, understand, create, and communicate with data across an organization.
Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, create, and communicate with data. At an organizational level, it measures how effectively employees across all functions can use data in their daily work — not just data specialists, but business users, managers, and executives. Data literacy programs typically cover data interpretation (reading charts, understanding statistical concepts), critical thinking (questioning data sources, recognizing bias), tool proficiency (using BI tools, building simple analyses), and data communication (presenting data-driven insights effectively). Organizations with high data literacy see faster adoption of analytics tools, better decision-making, and stronger ROI from their data investments.
Related terms
Data Strategy
A comprehensive plan for how an organization will collect, manage, and leverage data to achieve business objectives.
Data Quality
The degree to which data is accurate, complete, consistent, timely, and fit for its intended use.
Self-Service Analytics
Tools and practices that enable business users to create their own analyses without IT dependency.
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