There is a general consensus that reading competencies, being a core element of basic education, are an essential prerequisite for the acquisition, organization, and application of knowledge in various subjects and domains. Thus, reading competencies represent a key factor for educational and professional success, lifelong learning, and social participation. In the first part of this article, we summarize the main findings of recent international and national large-scale assessment studies suggesting that a significant proportion of children, adolescents, and adults in Germany do not attain a sufficient level of reading competence to understand and learn from texts. Because there is evidence that a share of these poor readers may have limited basic reading abilities that underlie text comprehension, in the second part of this article we review meta-analyses on the relations between cognitive skills and reading competence. Finally, we discuss challenges for school and adult education, and mention possible perspectives for future research.