National Literacy Trust finds only 35% of eight to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their spare time, a sharp drop on last year to the lowest figure yet recorded

Children’s reading enjoyment has fallen to its lowest level in almost two decades, with just one in three young people saying that they enjoy reading in their free time, according to a new survey.

Only 34.6% of eight- to 18-year-olds surveyed by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) said that they enjoy reading in their spare time. This is the lowest level recorded by the charity since it began surveying children about their reading habits 19 years ago, representing an 8.8 percentage point drop since last year.

It is also part of a broader downward trend since 2016, when almost two in three children said that they enjoyed reading.

  • Vodulas [they/them]
    4•16 days ago

    The only kind of excitement I see in their eyes when talking reading is when talking manga

    I don’t think you meant that manga is bad, but there is a huge variety of manga, and a lot of it is really good. But even if they just read shonen, is that a problem? They are reading for fun. It should be celebrated

    • iagomago
      4•16 days ago

      Of course I don’t think manga is bad, literature Is literature after all. As I said, it’s just that the interest in the material Is filtered through an appreciation of formerly consumed visual media, and even then It remains “an interest”, rather than something they actively look for. Monetary factors have also to be looked in: not every country can afford to print out Shonen Jump.