Education Today Education Today Magazine
The National Literacy Trust has released a report following the 76,131 responses to its Annual Literacy Survey from children and young people aged 5 to 18 in early 2024.
It includes findings on reading enjoyment, frequency and motivation and explores responses by age, gender, socio-economic background and geographical region.
The responses show that the number of children and young people who say they enjoy reading, and read daily, in their free time continues to decline.
In 2024, the percentage of children and young people who told the National Literacy Trust they enjoyed reading was its lowest since the first survey in 2005.
Just 1 in 3 (34.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024. Reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8 percentage points over the past year alone.
Slightly more children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading at school (40.5%) than in their free time (34.6%).
Only 1 in 5 (20.5%) 8- to 18-year-olds said that they read something daily in their free time in 2024, again, the lowest levels recorded since 2005, with daily reading levels decreasing by 7.5pp in the last year alone.
In 2024, the National Literacy Trust was able to match survey and reading-skill (Star Reading) data for 3,861 children and young people aged 8 to 14. This showed that in terms of reading enjoyment, children and young people who enjoyed reading (n = 1,211; M = 109.13) had higher average (mean) standardised reading scores than children and young people who didn’t enjoy reading (n = 2,593; M = 102.65). This difference was statistically significant.
Similar relationships were shown with daily reading. Children and young people who read daily (n = 789; M = 109.49) had higher average (mean) standardised reading scores than children and young people who didn’t read daily (n = 3,026; M = 103.35). This difference was statistically significant.
Given the broad educational and socioeconomic factors known to influence children and young people’s enjoyment of reading, the National Literacy Trust is calling on the government to urgently form a reading taskforce and action plan with multi-sector partners to address declining rates of reading enjoyment and, in its curriculum and assessment review, prioritise reading for pleasure alongside the skills that are vital in the development of confident, motivated readers.
Read the full report here.
