Reading Habits Around the World

What percentage of people do not read?

54.1% of Mexicans did not read a book last year
23.7% of American citizens stated that they haven’t read any book over the last 12 months
21% of Canadians have not read a book in the past 12 months
19.2% of Chinese people do not read0
18% of British people never read
12% of French people do not read
6% of Brazilians never read

What percentage of people around the world read every week?

66% of readers in Canada read weekly or more frequently
50% of readers in Spain read weekly at a minimum
48% of Dutch readers read every week or more frequently
42% of British readers read weekly
36% of readers in Denmark read weekly or more

How are reading habits changing around the world?

The people who read the most are starting to read fewer books each year
People are reading weekly instead of daily, suggesting people are reading less often
In Denmark, 14.1% fewer people read fiction every week than did in 2009
In Canada, 10% fewer people read a book last year than did in 2014
In Mexico, 17.6% fewer people read a book last year than did in 2016
In the USA, 8% fewer people read for pleasure now than did in 2017
In Norway, 83% of people read a book in the last year – down 10.7%

Print books vs digital

The global sales of UK publishing companies total £1.1 billion
271 million printed books are sold in the UK each year
25.8% of UK book sales are digital
74.2% of UK book sales are printed books
60% of brits tend to read paperback books
47% regularly read hardback books
24% read ebooks
Only 8% of Brits listen to audiobooks
18% of 18-24 year olds read digital books
They are the least likely age group to read books digitally
25-39 year olds listen to audiobooks most often with 13% listening to them

How often do British people read?

21% of British people are avid readers
43% of Brits read for fun at least one time each week
35% of Brits read for fun more than once a week
19% of British adults read every day

Who reads the most often in the UK?

34% of Brits over 55 years old read at least once a day
Only 7% of 18-24 year olds read at least once a day
27% of women read daily
Only 13% of men in the UK read every day
22% of men never read compared to only 12% of women who never read

When do Brits read?

36% of Brits prefer to read at night in bed
36% prefer to read in the evening but not in bed
35% of Brits have stated that they mainly read while they are on holiday
43% of when read in bed versus 30% of men
13% of men read while on their commute, this is higher than the 9% of women
30% of men typically read on holiday and 40% of women typically read while on holiday

What genres do Britons read?

36% do not have a preference when it comes to fiction or non-fiction
35% of Brits prefer to read fiction
- 42% of women prefer fiction to non-fiction
- 29% of men prefer fiction to non-fiction
Only 20% of Brits prefer to read non-ficiton books
- 24% of men prefer non-fiction to fiction
- 16% of women prefer non-fiction to fiction
When it comes to non-fiction genres:
- 41% of Brits don’t have a favorite genre of non-fiction
- 26% of Brits prefer memoirs and biographies making it the most popular genre of non-fiction
- This is followed by history books at 20% and cookbooks at 19%
When it comes to fiction genres:
- 31% of Brits don’t have a favorite genre of fiction
- 33% of Brits prefer crime novels and thrillers making it the most popular genre of fiction
- Fantasy fiction novels are the second most popular at 22%, with action adventure novels at 20% and classic novels at 19%
- Westerns are the least popular novels with just 2% of Brits choosing it as their favorite genre

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Reading Habits in Canada

79% of Canadians have read a book in the past year
The number of Canadians who read at least one book each year has decreased by 10% since 2014
More readers live in urban areas or cities than in rural areas
The percentage of readers increases amongst more educated people

Canadian reading habits over time

The number of Canadians who read at least one book each year has decreased by 10% since 2014
It reached its lowest in 2019 at 78% but rebounded to 79% in 2020
Until 2020, the number of Canadians who had read a book each year was consistently decline each year showing a worrying trend but it seems to have stabilized

Canadian reading habits by age group

The 18 to 29-year-old age group contains the most readers with 86% having read a book in the past year
This declines for each age group and reaches its lowest with the 55 to 64-year-olds where only 71% have read a book in the past year
It rises again for people aged 65+ but it is still the second-lowest age group for the percentage of readers

How often do Canadians read?

41% of Canadian readers read every day
26% of Canadian readers read weekly
12% of Canadian readers read monthly
21% of Canadian readers read less than once a month
67% of readers read daily or weekly
The oldest and the youngest read most frequently:
- 19% of readers aged 65+ read more than once a day
- 14% of readers aged 18-29 read more than once a day
There are more people in the age 65+ category that read more than 50 books a year than in any other age group

Reading Habits in the USA

The average American citizen spends around 16 minutes per day reading for personal interest. However, these figures vary greatly among different categories of citizens, from age to level of education.

But how many books the average American manages to read within this time? To answer that, we analyzed all available data on the reading habits of people.

How many people haven’t read a book in a year

In 2020, 23.7% of American citizens stated that they haven’t read any book over the last 12 months.
Compared to 2019, this is a 13.9% decline in the number of people who haven’t read a book. However, 2020 was heavily impacted by pandemic-related lockdowns, which changed people’s habits.
Even with the impact of lockdowns, the share of people who haven’t read any book increased by 19.8% compared to 2011.
Over the last 10 years, the average share of people who haven’t read a book in a year is 23.4%.

Among people who didn’t read any books, there are some demographic differences:

Men are 23.8% more likely not to read a book in 2020 compared to women.
People over 50 years of age are 47.4% more likely not to read a book compared to people under 50.
People with no college degree are 129% more likely not to read a book compared to people with some college degree.
People living in rural areas are 61% more likely not to read a book compared to people from urban areas.
31% of people who earn under $30,000 a year stated that they haven’t read a book over the last 12 months.
20% of white people haven’t read a book in a year, along with 25% of black and 38% of Hispanic people.

The average number of books read by year

In 2020, the average US citizen read 12 books per year, the figure that remained the same for the last 5 years.
The average dropped from 14 read books in a year during 2011.
However, the median value for the number of books read by the average citizen is 4. The median also dropped compared to 10 years ago, when it stood at 5.
54.6% of people read 5 or fewer books over the last 12 months, down from 57.1% in 2019.
The share of people who read over 20 books in a year was the largest over the last 10 years, standing at 18.6% during 2020.

The average number of books read by children

The pandemic didn’t have a positive effect on the reading habits of U18 citizens, as the reading rates among children are on a historically-low level:

Among 17-yeard olds, 27% stated that “never” or “hardly ever” read for fun and personal interest.
For comparison, only 19% of 17-year olds stated that they read almost every day.
13-year olds are in a similar situation, as 29% of them never or hardly ever read, while 17% read almost every day.
9-year olds tend to read more than their older friends, as 42% of them read almost every day, and only 16% hardly ever read for pleasure.

Chinese Reading Habits

How many books do Chinese people read each year?

The average Chinese adult reads 7.49 books per year
- 4.65 print books per year
- 2.84 digital books per year
Children under the age of 17 read 10.36 books per year

Print vs digital books in China

Print book sales are stable in China
62% of the books read in China are print books
38% of books read in China are ebooks are audiobooks

Ebook sales are growing slightly in China
Audiobook sales are growing significantly in China
- 30.3% of the adult Chinese population listen to audiobooks
- 34.7% of Chinese people under the age of 17 listen to audiobooks
38.5% of Chinese adults prefer paper books to ebooks

Reading in urban China vs rural China

Amongst adults, 81.1% of the Chinese population in towns and cities are readers
In rural areas, this drops significantly to 14.5%

Reading to young children in China

94.3% of Chinese families with children under 8 read frequently
Parents spend almost 25 minutes every day reading with their kids

Reading Habits in New Zealand

2% of New Zealanders have not read a book, newspaper, or magazine in the past year
86% of New Zealanders have at least started to read a book in the past year
50% of readers in New Zealand finish every book they start
29% of New Zealanders have bought a book in the last month

Do New Zealanders enjoy reading?

75% of New Zealanders really enjoy reading
67% read because they want to and find reading therapeutic
63% wish they had time to read more
10% really dislike reading
14% find reading stressful

What formats are New Zealanders reading?

On an average day:
- 31% of New Zealanders read something digital
- 20% of New Zealanders read something printed
- 17% of New Zealanders read printed and digital material

35% of New Zealanders read more things online than in print
Whereas 42% read more in print than online

Habits when reading books in New Zealand

33% of book readers in New Zealand are aged 65+
People who read books tend to read on evenings and weekends
34% are completely focused on the book while reading
42% are paying close attention when reading a book but also have other things going on

Habits when reading articles online in New Zealand

33% of people reading online articles are aged 18-34
People who read articles online tend to read in the afternoons and on weekdays
38% are paying close attention when reading an article online but also have other things going on
29% just skim online articles