Reflections on The State of the Nation's Adult Reading 2025

53% of participants self-identified as a regular reader – someone who reads more than once a week – an increase of 3% on last year’s results, which works out at roughly 120 people. However, 82% reported reading something each week, vastly different to the ‘regular reader’ number, so what makes this 29% think they are not a regular reader?

Perhaps it is the format in which they read. Of the 11 narrative forms that participants were questioned about, social media consistently came out on top across all age demographics, with digital articles being the preference for news engagement for everyone except 64+ who preferred print. For 16-24- and 25–34-year-olds, subtitles were their second media of choice reflecting the rise of streamers and the consumption of online video content amongst these demographics. Print books only appear in the top three for those aged 35 and above and never rises above 3^rd position.

Regular readers were found to have the highest levels of weekly engagement with all formats, though on average they also spent the least amount of time in one session with them. The greatest disparity between the reader identities related to print books as 79% of regular readers engaged weekly with a text compared to 33% of lapsed readers and 11% of non-readers. The nearest parity in engagement was for social media posts where 77% of regular readers, 75% of lapsed readers and 56% of non-readers all engaged weekly with the format. If then perceiving oneself as a reader is linked to how many books you consume, it is unsurprising that there is a disparity between the numbers who read regularly and self-identify as a regular reader.

How can we change this perception and rebrand the term ‘reader’?

In at number one – it’s lack of free time. 24% of participants reported lack of time as the predominate reason they were reading less. Other barriers include: inability to focus because of distractions, cost-of-living, reading confidence, learning differences, and material not being available in a preferred language.

Those adults impacted most severely by the cost-of-living crisis are 9% less likely to identify as regular readers and find it harder to source and purchase reading materials. The Reading Agency pairs these stats with the DCMS research into library engagement, highlighting their recommendations for libraries to better promote their services, especially digital reading materials, to those communities that are feeling the cost-of-living crisis most to increase engagement. But is it purely an unawareness of digital services or is there a cost barrier in accessing these too? How might reduced opening hours and locations be a factor that contributes to these statistics?