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.

  • iagomago
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Ehhh, while it’s true that some vids nowadays have captions, this isn’t always the case. Plus, consider that a lot of content on the internet isn’t necessarily in the language Kids think in (when they don’t come from anglo-speaking countries). And, once again anecdotal experience but I have to factor that in, “digital natives” don’t seem to communicate in written form as much as we do. Blame voice messages, I guess.