Contents
- Children reading habits statistics: enjoyment and interest
- Children reading habits statistics: daily and weekly reading
- How reading habits vary by age and gender
- What children read: books, lyrics, news and comics
- Print and screen reading habits among children
- What children say reading helps them do
- Sources
Children reading habits statistics: enjoyment and interest
In 2026, 36.1% of UK children and young people aged 8–18 in participating schools said they enjoyed reading in their free time either “very much” or “quite a lot.” That was up from 32.7% in 2025, a modest one-year rise. The longer view is less encouraging: the comparable figure was 58.6% in 2016. These results describe survey responses from participating schools, not every child in the UK. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
The younger age group reported higher enjoyment. Among children aged 5–8 in participating UK schools, 61.6% said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2026, compared with 62.6% in 2025. The 2026 result was also below the 76.3% recorded for this age group in 2019. These are separate age-group figures; they should not be read as a direct comparison of the same children over time. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Children reading habits statistics: daily and weekly reading
Enjoyment and frequency move together in the survey, but they are not interchangeable. In 2026, 20.3% of 8–18-year-olds said they read something in their free time daily, up from 18.7% in 2025. Among children aged 5–8, daily reading was more common: 45.5% in 2026, compared with 44.5% in 2025. “Daily reading” here refers to free-time reading, rather than reading assigned at school. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Among 8–18-year-olds who enjoyed reading, 49.8% read daily and 92.6% read at least once a week. Among those who did not enjoy reading, 4.5% read daily; 34.6% read weekly and 62.3% at least monthly. So a lack of enjoyment did not mean that a child never read: more than three in five in that group still reported reading in their free time at least once a month. These comparisons are associations within the survey, not evidence that enjoyment alone causes more frequent reading. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
How reading habits vary by age and gender
For 8–18-year-olds, 28.8% of boys and 42.3% of girls reported enjoying free-time reading in 2026. Daily reading showed a similar gap: 16.8% of boys and 23.1% of girls said they read daily. Among the younger 5–8 group, enjoyment was reported by 56.3% of boys and 67.1% of girls, while daily reading was reported by 41.1% and 50.5%, respectively. The survey reports differences between groups; it does not explain what accounts for them. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Age patterns among 8–18-year-olds are not a straight decline from childhood to adolescence. Reading enjoyment was 47.7% among ages 8–11, 33.2% among ages 11–14, 35.0% among ages 14–16, and 49.4% among ages 16–18. Daily reading was highest in the youngest band: 31.9% at ages 8–11, compared with 18.8% at 11–14, 16.4% at 14–16 and 21.2% at 16–18. The older group’s higher enjoyment than the middle age bands shows why a single average can hide variation. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
The report also compared children by free-school-meal uptake, a survey category rather than a complete measure of family circumstances. Among 8–18-year-olds, 32.1% of those receiving free school meals enjoyed reading in their free time, compared with 37.3% of those not receiving them. Daily reading was 16.3% and 21.4%, respectively. These figures describe differences between the reported groups; they do not establish why the difference exists or represent every child’s household situation. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
What children read: books, lyrics, news and comics
Reading in the 2026 survey extended beyond books. Among 8–18-year-olds, 70.4% read song lyrics in their free time at least monthly, 65.0% read fiction or short stories, and 52.8% read non-fiction. Comics or graphic novels were read monthly by 45.7%, news articles by 42.3%, fan fiction by 33.0%, and magazines by 31.4%. Each percentage is the share reporting that material at least once a month; a child could read several kinds, so these figures do not add up to 100%. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
Choices also differed by age and gender. Monthly news reading ranged from 32.2% among 8–11-year-olds to 69.7% among 16–18-year-olds. For song lyrics, monthly reading was reported by 82.1% of girls, while 58.5% of boys reported reading fiction at least monthly. These are examples of differences across material categories, not a complete ranking of what boys and girls prefer. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
Monthly reading of comics or graphic novels rose from 38.2% in 2025 to 45.7% in 2026 among 8–18-year-olds. The survey’s broad definition of reading captures this kind of material as well as prose. Counting only books would therefore leave out a substantial share of what young people say they read. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
Print and screen reading habits among children
Print remained more common than screen reading for several materials in 2026. Among 8–18-year-olds, 48.9% read fiction in print at least monthly, while 27.3% read fiction on a screen. For non-fiction, the figures were 42.2% in print and 17.6% on a screen; for comics or graphic novels, 34.5% in print and 18.4% on a screen. These format measures are reported separately and should not be treated as mutually exclusive: some children may read the same material in both formats. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
News and song lyrics showed a different screen pattern. Monthly news reading was reported by 33.7% on a screen and 12.7% in print; for song lyrics, it was 64.8% on a screen and 12.5% in print. Screen news reading also varied markedly by age: 18.8% among 8–11-year-olds and 66.5% among 16–18-year-olds read news on a screen at least monthly. The format results reflect different habits by material, rather than a simple split between children who read on paper and children who read digitally. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
The comparison with 2017/18 suggests a shift in fiction formats. Monthly print fiction reading was 59.5% in 2017/18 and 48.9% in 2026; screen fiction reading was 19.9% and 27.3%, respectively. The figures show how reported reading formats differed between the two survey periods. They do not show that individual children switched from one format to another. (Many ways to read: What children and young people read, how they read and how this has changed over time)
What children say reading helps them do
In 2026, 69.8% of 8–18-year-olds said reading helps them learn new words or things, while 48.1% said it helps them do better at school. These are children’s reported views, not a test of reading’s effect on vocabulary or academic results. The distinction matters: a survey can describe what children believe reading does without establishing a causal outcome. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Reported views were generally higher among children who both enjoyed reading and read weekly. In that group, 85.2% said reading helps them learn new words or things, and 64.6% said it helps them do better at school. Among those who read weekly but did not enjoy reading, the corresponding figures were 74.1% and 52.9%. This pattern links engagement with stronger agreement in the survey, while leaving open what explains the difference. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Views extended beyond school. Overall, 45.3% said reading helps them understand other people’s views. Among weekly readers who enjoyed reading, 63.5% agreed; among weekly readers who did not enjoy it, 44.4% did. In the engaged group, 38.0% said reading helps them understand themselves better, 64.4% said it helps them relax, and 55.6% said it helps when they feel stressed. These figures describe perceptions among children in participating schools, rather than measured changes in wellbeing. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)
Encouragement was also commonly reported: 54.8% of 8–18-year-olds said their parents encouraged them to read, and 65.8% said their teachers did. Taken together with the reported variety of reading materials, this suggests that children’s reading habits encompass daily routines, different formats and a range of purposes. The survey describes those experiences and views; it does not by itself identify which kinds of encouragement change reading behaviour. (Children and young people’s reading in 2026)