If you are alarmed by the steep decline in reading for pleasure — as am I — you might find yourself asking: what does this mean for society? What are the implications of a nation where reading is one of the last things we turn to in our free time? The 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon once observed that “a man who never reads will never be read.” But before we aspire to lofty ambitions of penning our own words for posterity, let us begin with the stark realities.
A recent report published by The National Literacy Trust states that only 1 in 5 young people read for pleasure in their spare time — a meagre 20%. This leads to further questions. What is filling their free time? And what are the first, second and third order consequences of such paltry levels of reading among the young?
The social cost argument
It is no secret that many young people serving sentences in youth detention centres have had long-lasting struggles with reading. Whether through dyslexia or simple lack of exposure, there is a direct correlation between low literacy and youth offending. The National Literacy Trust report, often startling in its findings, reveals that the decline in reading has been particularly steep amongst boys between the ages of 11 and 16. This concerns me for several reasons. Boys are already not faring well in education more broadly, continuing to be outpaced by girls at every level from primary through to university. With the rise of incel culture and the destructive influence of the manosphere, it will take knowledge and critical thinking to challenge such ignorance — and one of the primary ways we develop both is through reading. If boys continue to reject it, I fear they will lack the intellectual tools to distinguish falsehood from fact.
What can be done to promote reading?
The report is not all doom and gloom. Choice and agency are noted as key areas, with many young people already engaging with reading through song lyrics, news articles, comics and fan fiction. The report suggests aligning reading with personal interests — a principle that could translate practically into interest audits, where schools survey students and stock libraries accordingly. A caveat applies here: schools would need to guard against limiting selection only to what students already know. Part of the joy of reading is discovering writers, ideas and forms one would not typically seek out.
The report also finds that boys are more inclined to engage in social reading — a promising insight, particularly given that negative masculinity often pushes males toward isolation. Boys’ reading groups, with structured space to discuss ideas, could be a genuinely powerful intervention. Given that boys tend to lean toward reading for information rather than escapism, involving them in selecting quality non-fiction could be a natural entry point.
Finally, the report categorises reading motivations into three broad types: curious (learning-focused), mindful (wellbeing-focused) and social (connection-focused). Curious motivations prove the strongest, particularly among more reluctant readers. This suggests that schools would do well to develop an explicit curiosity strategy — one that frames books not as obligations, but as answers to questions students are already asking.
Reading can take many forms. Culture has shifted the way we consume content, and schools should not blindly resist that tide, but learn to work with it — so that reading becomes a lifelong habit rather than a classroom chore.
The National Literacy Trust report can be found here.