The National Library has published a preliminary report “The state of reading books in Poland in 2022”. The information that teenagers are more and more willing to read books is encouraging: 72% of them declare it. surveyed young people, and 18 percent. reads seven or more titles. Every third Pole has read at least one book.
In a study conducted in autumn 2022 – the preliminary report of which was published by the National Library on April 21 – reading at least one book in the last 12 months declared 34 percent. respondents aged 15 or over. This is the same result as in November 2021, emphasize researchers on the state of reading in Poland. In a broader perspective, the percentage of book readers has not changed in a statistically significant way since 2015.
In 2022, among the positive trends, there was an increase in readership in the group of people aged 15-18: 72 percent. of respondents here declare themselves as book readers, 18 percent. read seven or more titles during the year. This is an increase of five percent compared to 2021, when 60 percent. reported reading books at all.
Who reads the most books
Experts note that a slight increase in readership in Poland was noticeable in 2020, during the pandemic. However, it was not – as it turned out – the beginning of an upward trend. As we read in the report, in the second year of the pandemic, “reading fatigue” was noticeable and “this situation continues”.
Books in paper or digital form are read primarily by the best educated and learning people (58% of university graduates, 14% of people with basic vocational education). As in previous years, women read books more often than men, and this difference is still very clear (42% and 26% respectively).
The fewest people declaring reading books are in the oldest age group, especially those over 70. As the authors of the report note, this relationship is a derivative of, among others, level of education – among the oldest people, the percentage of holders of university diplomas is the lowest (only 8% in the group over 70). The largest number of readers is in the largest cities, while the fewest in villages and small towns.
What books do we most like to read?
The most popular source of books read are still purchases, but also gifts and loans from friends. In 2022, the most read books in Poland are dominated by fiction, crime and romance literature.
According to the authors of the report, in the analyzed period there was no novel that gained enough mass audience to become a reading event. However, there was a large increase in interest in crime and thriller literature (from 24% in 2020 to 32% in 2022, and a decrease in fantasy and fantasy reading from 11% in 2020 to 7% in 2022).
The full report is available on the National Library website.
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