Reading for Pleasure

The latest report, taken from the results of 125,375 children and young people in the UK aged 5 to 18 from across the UK who completed our annual literacy survey, shows a small uplift in children and young people’s reading enjoyment and daily reading habits over the last year.

• More than 1 in 3 (36.1%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 say they enjoy reading in their free time
• Over 1 in 5 (20.3%) say they read something daily in their free time

Despite this rise, reading enjoyment (58.6% in 2016) and daily reading (32.0% in 2016) levels still lag significantly behind those of a decade ago, with the gender gap for younger children (aged 5 to 8) and the disadvantage gap for older children (aged 8-18) both widening.

READ OUR 2026 RESEARCH REPORT IN FULL

The findings are published during the National Year of Reading 2026 – the biggest campaign in a generation designed to inspire everyone to discover the joy of reading and embed it into everyday life.

While the relationship between reading enjoyment and daily reading is crucial, new insights in our research indicates reading must also be relevant, meaningful and supported by people in children’s lives for it to become strongly embedded.

Relevance is particularly important for children who are the least engaged with reading; boys and children from disadvantaged backgrounds who don’t enjoy reading and who read less than once a week are more likely than their peers to say reading helps them explore their interests.

While more girls read for wellbeing and emotional support, more boys leaned toward reading to connect with causes or the wider world. Reading to build knowledge and skills was equally strong across genders.

Children and young people who report low levels of reading enjoyment, though less engaged, still recognise reading’s educational value - nearly half said it helps them learn new words or new things.

How can we support children and young people to grow a love of reading? 

The findings from our 2026 report suggest a need to align reading with children and young people’s personal interests in order to encourage a love of reading in their free time. Our previous research has also offered insights into key motivators which encourage a child or young person to read, including the following:

In fact, in 2025, half (49.3%) of children and young people told us they still read fiction or short stories in print each month and two in five (40.1%) read non-fiction books. Formats such as comics and graphic novels (29.2%) and magazines (21.3%) remain popular choices. Whilst digital formats dominated in other categories, with song lyrics (60.7%) and news articles (28.2%) mostly read on screens.

These insights are powerful.

They suggest that re-engagement is possible, especially if we personalise reading opportunities around interests, allow autonomy in choice, and better link reading to other media children and young people already recognise as part of their cultural life.

Why is reading for pleasure important?

There are many benefits to nurturing a love of reading in a child's free time. When children and young people enjoy reading they read more often, opening up benefits for their:

• reading skills,
• aptitude for learning,
• wellbeing and empathy,
• all of which set them up for success in school and life.

In fact, our research shows that children and young people who enjoy reading are significantly more likely to read regularly in their free time than those who don’t enjoy reading (49.8% vs 4.5%).

Together, let's continue to grow a reading culture at home and in school and empower children and young people with the skills they need to learn, to discover new things about the world around them, about the things they are interested in, about the people and cultures they may not yet know and new ways to explore their sense of self.

What are we doing to support children to discover a love of reading?

The importance of redefining reading as relevant, meaningful and social is central to the National Year of Reading 2026. As the campaign reaches its half-way point, and against a backdrop of multiple government commitments to support children and young people’s reading, we are calling for national leadership, sustained cross-sector partnerships and long-term investment to maintain this year’s upturn so every child can thrive.

Alongside our involvement in the National Year of Reading 2026 and over the next three years through our organisational strategy, we will continue in our commitment to directly support and empower 1.5 million more children and young people from disadvantaged communities to read for pleasure and develop greater confidence in their reading skills.

This includes ensuring every primary school has a dedicated library or reading space by 2028 through our Libraries for Primaries campaign and supporting young families with children aged 0 to 5 through Early Words Matter, which champions the crucial role of stories, songs and shared book experiences in building early language and emotional bonds that form the bedrock of future reading enjoyment and success.

We continue to target our work in the nation’s most deprived wards, where low literacy and poverty are having the greatest impact on people’s lives. In these high priority areas, where we work most intensively with schools and community partners, children and young people’s reading skills and engagement have significantly improved.

Last year, across our reading programmes delivered in primary and secondary schools throughout the UK, levels of reading confidence (84%), reading enjoyment (77%) and reading frequency (66%) increased significantly for pupils who were the least engaged with reading before taking part. 

We continue to expand our current education programmes, offering high-quality reading for pleasure resources, and training opportunities for practitioners.

How can you get involved?