Yes, even in the US. It is not as simple as you think... Now try to pronounce the following words. Then all end in "ough" bough, cough, dough, rough, through, thorough, though, or even words like "quay", or even "boatswain".

Jeff is right. English is not one language but a mix of Germanic languages with a lot of words from French which are not spelled the way they sound. The USA has no official language and the culture is very diverse. We do have a problem with illiteracy and almost 20% of students fail to graduate from public high schools. The level or reading skills is so low that major magazines need to write in simple English so people can understand.

There are most defiantly illiterate people in English speaking countries. Along side people who can not read or write at all, we also have many people who suffer from a learning difficulty called dyslexia. Dyslexia affects many areas of learning, but mainly affects reading and writing skills. English is not at all straightforward to read and write. Dyslexics tend to spell a word exactly how it sounds, and many many words are not written how they sound. If you look at your example 'apple' a dyslexic may well write apull.

But definitely easier than Chinese to read and write.

You are right. There are very few illiterates among native speakers. We all learned to read in the first grade of school, if not before. After we learn the alphabet, we are told concerning a new word to "sound it out." The orthography in English is not as perfect as in Spanish, but this "phonics" method still works. We have free lending libraries in the USA. Eight year-olds have library cards. The libraries send trucks with books ("Bookmobiles") to rural areas. There are organizations to promote literacy but they mainly work with recently arrived immigrants whom are still learning English.