A Million Words to a Million Dollars?

At my grandson’s interschool soccer tournament yesterday, I found myself in conversation with his school principal. He told me my grandson has hit his yearly target of one million words read and will be recognised at the school harvest assembly. This was news to me, so I asked what the thinking behind the programme was.

The principal explained that the million-word benchmark is a practical way to build vocabulary and cognitive stamina, which he described as the biggest driver of long-term career and financial success. Over several decades, the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation tested tens of thousands of professionals across industries and found that vocabulary size was the best single predictor of occupational level and earning power. It tracked income and managerial rank more closely than native IQ or years of formal schooling.

A child who reads a million words a year, he said, meets roughly 85,000 different words in context. That builds what economists call crystallised intelligence: the ability to follow complex arguments, write persuasively and communicate clearly when the stakes are high.

He then turned to the money. Labour market data from the US and UK suggests that adults with “proficient” prose literacy earn around $1,000,000 more over a 40-year career than those with basic or below-basic skills.

I never got to ask a follow-up, because a pupil was fouled and the principal went sprinting across the pitch to share his views on the referee’s decision. Still, the conversation stuck with me. If I’d read more in junior school, might I have an extra million in my retirement account? (I’d settle for a decent COLA adjusted pension and a better vocabulary for describing referees.)

As for the match, poor refereeing notwithstanding, the team won and moved on to the next round of the school cup. So if reading doesn’t make my grandson his extra million, perhaps sport will.

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