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Annual Literacy Survey

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Would you like to know what your pupils think about reading, writing, speaking and listening? Now in its 14th year, the National Literacy Trust’s Annual Literacy Survey explores children and young people’s literacy behaviours, attitudes and enjoyment.

The online survey has been conducted with children and young people aged 5 to 18 in schools and settings across the UK since 2010. Findings provide a consistent national measure of children’s literacy and allow us to track annual trends in reading, writing, speaking and listening. This data provides an essential evidence base and informs all of the National Literacy Trust’s campaigning and programmatic work.

This year, there are multiple surveys to choose from:

  • 5 to 8-year-old survey
  • 8 to 16-year-old
  • 16 to 18-year-old survey
  • Staff survey

The survey is open to schools across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales.

Participating schools receive a personalised school report outlining their findings, which they can compare nationally once the national reports are published. If you would like to take part, please register below. Only one member of staff needs to sign up on behalf of your school, including for the surveys for pupils. All surveys are completely free to take part in, and none should take you longer than 45 minutes.

Registration for the 2024 Annual Literacy Survey is now closed.

Thank you to everybody who has signed up and taken part in the survey. All schools have now received a summary of their results. If you have any questions or issues please contact the research team.

To hear about the reports as they come out, make sure you're signed up to our newsletter

Key findings for 2023

We conducted our latest Annual Literacy Survey between January and April 2023. This survey was our most popular to date, with 71,351 children and young people aged 5 to 18 taking part.

  • Reading in 2023

    Just 2 in 5 (43.4%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoy reading in their spare time. This is the lowest level since we first asked the question in 2005. Read more.

  • Poetry in 2023

    In 2023, 1 in 4 (26.7%) children and young people said that they read poetry at least once a month. Compared with their peers who didn't read poetry, more of those who did said that they enjoyed reading (58.5% vs 37.9%) Read more.

  • Writing in 2023

    1 in 3 (34.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoy writing in their free time. Levels of writing enjoyment have reduced by 12.2 percentage points over the last 13 years. Read more.

Key reports