This report, using data from 47,786 pupils in the UK aged 8 to 18 who answered writing questions as part of our Annual Literacy Survey that we conducted between November 2017 and end of January 2018, explores:
- How many children and young people enjoy writing
- How often they write in their free time
- The type of formats they write
- How good a writer they think they are
- What they think about writing
- Which groups of young people are more likely to engage in writing
- How writing differs by geographical region
The report found that half (50.9%) of children and young people in 2017/18 said that they either only enjoy writing a bit or not at all. Overall, fewer children and young people in 2017/18 said that they enjoy writing compared with the year before, decreasing from 50.7% to 49.2%.