Our surveys show that the reading crisis persists, with the number of children and young people who say they enjoy reading, and read daily, continuing to decline.
This report is based on 114,970 responses to our Annual Literacy Survey from children and young people aged 5 to 18 in early 2025. It includes findings on reading enjoyment , frequency and motivation and explores responses by age, gender, socio-economic background and geographical region.
Key findings
Reading enjoyment:
In 2025, the percentage of children and young people who told us they enjoyed reading was its lowest in 20 years.
Just 1 in 3 (32.7%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2025. This marks a 36% decrease in reading enjoyment levels since we started asking about this in 2005.
The drop in reading enjoyment over the last year has been especially steep among primary-aged children and boys, particularly boys aged 11 to 16.
Reading frequency:
Fewer than 1 in 5 (18.7%) 8- to 18-year-olds told us that they read something daily in their free time in 2025, again, the lowest levels we've recorded, with daily reading levels decreasing by nearly 20 percentage points since 2005.
Even among children aged 5 to 8, daily reading rates dropped by 3.4 percentage points in the past year to 44.5%, and have dropped by 9.1 percentage points since we started asking this age group in 2019.
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