That's a great question Dorothea. It's surprisingly challenging to know how literacy in the US compares to the rest of the world because more sources I looked at don't have data for the US (or Canada or Australia), like this one -- https://ourworldindata.org/literacy

However, I did find this source (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/literacy-rate-by-country) which says America is ranked 36th in the world, but it also stipulates that

" Many countries, particularly in North America and Western Europe, utilize a more stringent definition of literacy. As such, their data would create an 'apples to oranges' comparison to the more common definition and is rarely included in literacy data sets.

- Countries with more stringent definitions of literacy include the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, France, and Germany."

I hope that helps answer your question. Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts!