Based on a survey of 44,097 children aged 8-18 in the UK, the National Literacy Trust’s Book ownership, literacy engagement and mental wellbeing report shows that the more books a child owns, the more likely they are to do well at school and be happy with their lives.
Key findings
- 9% of children and young people say that they don’t own have a book of their own at home, a statistic that has remained static over the past year. This means that 1 in 11 children and young people in the UK miss the benefits of having their own books
- This ratio drops to 1 in 8 pupils who receive free school meals who told us that they don’t have a book of their own at home
- 51.24 is the average number of books owned by children and young people who say that they have books of their own at home
- Not only do fewer disadvantaged pupils say that they have a book of their own at home than their advantaged peers, but those who do have books of their own report fewer books than their more advantaged peers (39.8 vs. 52.6)