It has been reported through the Annual Literature Survey that young children aged from 5 to 18 read less. From 114,970 responses that covered age, gender, socio-economic background and geographical region, it determined that the reading crisis persists.

The drop in reading enjoyment over the last year has been especially steep among primary-aged children and boys, particularly boys aged 11 to 16. Fewer than 1 in 5 8- to 18-year-olds claimed that they read something daily in their free time in 2025, the lowest levels recorded, with daily reading levels decreasing by nearly 20 percentage points since 2005. An important way to address the decline in reading enjoyment and frequency is to shed light on what drives or deters reading among children and young people. 2 in 5 children and young people were motivated to read when material related to a favourite film or TV series (38.1%) or matched their interests or hobbies (37.1%)