Was reading an Atlantic article discussing reading, saying the number of people who read more than fifty books a year, mostly for entertainment, varies between “a minuscule amount” and half the population. That number is 5% in the United States. I think Canada would be similar.
So I wondered which countries were so high. I guessed some of the higher ones, but only four of the top ten. So I was surprised at the results. Canada is number 20 FWIW. The US and Germany tie for 21st.
The World Atlas does not seem to know the difference between one day and seven…
Bookstores are so much more common in Germany than in the U.S., but survey says — equal reading. I question the survey.
When my brothers and I were in our teens, our parents had a great rule, one I did not appreciate at first. If we wanted to see a movie, we first had to get permission from them. If there was a book on which the film was based, we had to read the book first, and then give an oral book report without notes to our parents. Only then did we get permission. This was obviously long before the days of handheld screens and instant video access. As I said, I did not appreciate it when they came up with the rule. The first time I was subjected to it, I did get permission and went to see a movie with my friends. After the flick, we headed to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour and while ruining our health, we discussed the movie. My friends said I got a lot more out of the film than they did. Don’t you hate it when your parents are right?
Here is another survey suggesting those with lots of books in their house when they were sixteen years old developed more literacy, numeracy and IT skills. It lists the average number of books people own.
Woohoo, I beat the average Estonian!
I didn’t know what to expect, but I was surprised that the UK ranked lower than the US. I’ve always thought of the English as a very literary people.
The WorldAtlas ranking is based on all reading, not just books, I noticed.
My guess is that all of the countries at the top of that list have limited per capita access to TV.
We may have more bookstores in Germany, but OTOH much less public libraries. You may find them in big cities, but a public library in every little town is not a thing here.
With good cause.
There is no reason to think that these surveys represent their respective countries’ general populations in any way.
The more books correlation is another silly one. It’s a marker of which parents have kids with better literacy and numeracy. Who owns lots and lots of books? Generally the more intellectual and more highly educated. Shocking that highly intellectual parents raise kids who are literate and have numeracy?
This is indeed almost a tautology. What I found more interesting was the national distribution of people who value books and thus buy and keep them.
Was this in the Atlantic article? It’s behind a paywall for me.
No, below in the “biggest bookworm thing” (from the Grauniad), excerpt below.
Estonians top the charts with an average of 218 books per house (when they were 16).
Estonians top the charts with an average of 218 books per house when they were 16 (chart may extend to right of screen)
| Country | Five books | 20 books | 65 books | 150 books | 350 books | 500+ books | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estonia | 4 | 9 | 28 | 23 | 22 | 13 | 218 |
| Norway | 6 | 9 | 30 | 22 | 20 | 14 | 212 |
| Czech Republic | 2 | 6 | 33 | 27 | 22 | 10 | 204 |
| Denmark | 9 | 12 | 29 | 21 | 19 | 11 | 192 |
| Russian Federation | 7 | 15 | 35 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 154 |
| Germany | 12 | 15 | 34 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 151 |
| Australia | 13 | 13 | 35 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 148 |
| UK | 15 | 16 | 33 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 143 |
| Canada | 18 | 16 | 33 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 125 |
| France | 22 | 17 | 31 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 117 |
| World | 21 | 18 | 32 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 115 |
| US | 20 | 18 | 32 | 15 | 9 | 5 | 114 |
(Etc., reference has longer list)
Is the number in the US artificially suppressed by the relatively large number of people for whom there really “Is Only One Book” worth having or allowed in the house?
Hm.
“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)
“Yada, yada, yada” (Seinfeld)
I would suuggest two factors that might make the difference:
Religion. Highly religious people learn to read early, and read from their Bibles/Koran regularly, which may cause them to read more of other stuff. Both my parents were religious, and their house was full of books despite neither going past high school.
Wealth. The list of countries with lots of reading look like literate countries that are still on the low end of income for developed/developing countries. And books are a very cheap form of entertainment.
Work ethic might also have something to do with it. Both Korea and Japan have very low reading rates and lots of money, but the people work a lot.
I think these are good points. Literacy rate and the cultural value generally placed on education and reading in particular matter. (Though an emphasis mainly on entrance exams might mean less reading for pleasure). I don’t think if you gave people a general survey asking “do you read regularly” or “do you read for entertainment” most people would actually include their work e-mails even if technically true. But maybe your work e-mails are longer or more interesting than mine.