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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 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.

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 involve pupils in your school, please register below. The next survey will be live in January 2024.

Registration for the 2024 Annual Literacy Survey is now open!

If you have any questions about the survey, please email us.

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