Widespread use of digital devices has, inevitably, had an influence on the ways in which many of us engage with reading. Often, debates about children and young people’s reading pit books against screens, or focus on the potential negatives of reading in digital formats compared with print. While raising valuable and vital points, these discussions can risk missing how many children and young people are choosing to read today and, armed with that knowledge, how best to support them.
Drawing on data from our Annual Literacy Survey over the past two decades, with a focus on 2017 – 2025, our new report, Trends in children and young people’s reading in print and digital formats, aims to build a clearer picture of how reading engagement has changed over time, and to ensure that children and young people’s reading practices are neither undervalued nor overlooked.
Print matters, but reading digitally is part of everyday life
Much research shows that print reading, when compared with reading only in digital formats, is associated with higher scores in reading assessments, as is reading fiction. It is, therefore, encouraging that in 2025, print remains the most popular format for reading in free time, and fiction the most popular choice of material.
At the same time, reading digitally is firmly embedded in many children and young people’s everyday lives, and has been since we first started asking about their reading habits and preferences in 2005. In our 2025 report exploring children and young people's reading habits, more than 1 in 5 8 to 18s (22.2%) reported reading fiction digitally, increasing to 3 in 10 (29.4%) for 16- to 18-year-olds. While this figure has increased only slightly since 2017 (when it was 19.9%); over this same period, levels of print reading have dropped by more than 10 percentage points (from 59.5% to 49.3%). This suggests some resilience in reading in digital formats, but also shows that long-term declines in reading can’t be explained by a simple move from books to screens.
For many children and young people, rather than replacing print reading, reading digitally complements or sits alongside it. Young people’s comments highlight how it enabled a variety of reading to fit into their busy lives, interests and the devices they already had to hand - as one told us, “I read comics on my iPad or phone on my way to school or in my free time - it helps me practise English.”
The most engaged readers read across formats, while gender, socio-economic and enjoyment gaps narrow in digital formats
A key finding from this research is that the children and young people who enjoyed reading most were most likely to report reading in both print and digital formats. This suggests that for this group, engagement comes first, and format follows, with voracious readers embracing any opportunity to engage with stories and information, “I enjoy reading multiple books at a time, I listen to Audibles, read ebooks and physical books, and also read The Week Junior magazine.”
At the other end of the engagement spectrum, another important insight was that the gender and socioeconomic gaps seen in print reading narrowed for reading digitally. For example, while fewer children and young people who received free school meals (FSMs) told us that they read fiction on paper in their free time than those who didn’t receive FSMs, this pattern reversed in relation to reading fiction in digital formats. Notably, our research on book ownership shows that fewer children who receive FSMs have a book of their own at home (1 in 6 don't have a book, compared with 1 in 11 of those from higher-income homes), suggesting that digital formats may provide an important route into reading for those who might otherwise lack access to reading material.
Echoing our findings from our earlier children and young people's digital reading research, we also found that reading digitally was more popular than reading in print among those with the lowest levels of reading enjoyment. This indicates that digital formats can act as a gateway into reading for this group, and in turn, that failing to recognise or support this preference may risk undervaluing an essential part of the reading lives of children who already feel least connected to books.
As short-form video and AI rise, engagement with digital-only reading material is dropping dramatically
As mentioned, print reading habits have fallen sharply since 2017, and reading digitally has remained steady. However, perhaps surprisingly, when it came to material that could only be read on screen (‘digital reading’, e.g. text messages, websites and social media content), levels of reading have decreased dramatically, particularly since 2023. Shifts towards more visual, short-form video and AI summaries, leading to reduced engagement with some online-only texts, may explain this in part.
What does this mean for supporting reading?
Strong print reading skills are vital: underpinning comprehension, focus and confidence but also supporting reading digitally and interacting with AI outputs. While not seeking to suggest that all reading is equivalent across formats or materials, this research aims to show that digital reading formats play a consistent, and ongoing, role in how children and young people encounter text today, especially as we consider a changing landscape and the future of literacy. For most, print and digital reading are simply part of a reading landscape but for some, digital formats are an essential route into reading.
Promisingly, the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report signals an intention for English to draw on a broader range of texts, including digital formats, reflecting the changing ways in which children and young people read, write and communicate and preparing them for contemporary literacy environments. This can only help address the challenge of creating inclusive reading cultures that reflect how children and young people actually read, while supporting them to develop the deeper, sustained reading that benefits them most. Focusing solely on the ‘threat’ of screens may lose the bigger picture, which includes recognising the reality of children’s reading lives, valuing diverse routes into reading and ensuring that all children have opportunities to build both engagement and skill, regardless of format.
The report findings support the principles of the National Year of Reading, validating children and young people's contemporary experiences of reading and encouraging them to dive into their passion through reading in whatever way works for them.