The greatest proportion of people reading books was recorded among women, young people aged 16–24, and people having higher education.
In 2022, 61.6 % of women and just 36.3 % of men had read a book during the last 12 months. Among men, 38.1 % did not read because of a lack of interest, and 19.5 % due to the lack of time (16.4 % and 13.5 % among women, respectively). Only 0.2 % of men and 0.6 % of women said they do not read books because they cannot afford it.
Reading books and main reasons for not reading books during last 12 months by sex, 2022
(per cent of population aged 16 and over)
|
Total |
Males |
Females |
|
|
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
|
Had read books |
50.3 |
36.3 |
61.6 |
|
Main reason for not reading books |
|
|
|
|
lack of interest |
25.9 |
38.1 |
16.4 |
|
lack of time |
16.1 |
19.5 |
13.5 |
|
lack of access |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.8 |
|
cannot afford it |
0.4 |
0.2 |
0.6 |
|
other reason |
6.3 |
5.3 |
7.2 |
Age breakdown of the data shows that reading books is more popular among young people aged 16–24. In 2022, 58.2 % of youngsters had read books while in other age groups the indicator varied around 50 %.
Lack of time and lack of interest were the two main reasons for not reading books last year. Lack of interest was mentioned by 25.9 % and lack of time by 16.1 %. Moreover, the population aged 25–49, compared to people in other age groups, mentioned they do not read because of the lack of time the most often (23 %). The proportion of those who did not read because of the lack of interest was similar in all age groups and varied between 25 and 27.1 %.
Results of the survey show that people with higher education read significantly more than people with secondary or basic education (70.4 %, 42.6 % and 33.7 %, respectively).
The results of the survey show that more books are read by the wealthiest part of the population. Among the richest population (belonging to the fifth quintile group), 64.7 % had read books during the last 12 months while among the poorest population (belonging to the first quintile group) those were 40.9 %, moreover one in three (33.3 %) people living in the poorest households said they were not interested in reading books.
