Arts participation survey: engagement with reading slightly down

Creative Australia has released the results of the National Arts Participation Survey, which shows that engagement in reading has reduced slightly since 2019. However, over two thirds of Australians are still reading for pleasure and one in seven Australians produce creative writing.

Reading

According to the survey results, in 2022, over two thirds (69%) of the population aged 15 years and over read at least one printed book or ebook or listened to an audiobook for pleasure. However, Australians’ engagement with reading is slightly down from 72% in 2019, and the report highlights a particular drop in reading for pleasure among Australians aged 65 and over. ‘The decrease in overall reading highlights a need to understand what might be contributing to this drop, and to promote the many benefits and pleasures of reading for all Australians.’

Significantly, income is associated with reading for pleasure. The report showed that respondents with an income below $40,000 were the least likely to have engaged with reading in the past year (61%), while levels of reading were much higher among those with an income over $100,000 (73%).

The survey report provides insights into reading behaviour based on age and gender. The number of younger Australians aged 15–34 who read for pleasure is higher (73%) than the proportion of those aged 50 and over (66%). The report notes that ‘while younger Australians have strong engagement with reading, older Australians read more often’, with 27% of older Australians reading daily compared to 12% of those aged 15–34. Among children, reading for pleasure is more popular for girls (77%) than boys (68%) and is higher among children aged 5–8 (76%) and 9–11 (78%) than those aged 12–14 (63%), but three quarters of Generation Z read for pleasure (74% of the population aged 15–24).

According to the report, genre selections vary with population demographics as well. Women are more likely (55%) than men (37%) to read novels and/or short stories, and 35% of women and 26% of men are reading instructional nonfiction. Men are more likely (17%) than women (11%) to read graphic novels or comics. Young Australians aged 15–24 are also more likely (25%) to read graphic novels or comics than those aged 25–49 (16%) or those aged 50 and over (8%).

Print books are the most popular format for Australians to consume literature, with two thirds (66%) of Australians reading physical copies, which is slightly down from 69% in 2019. The frequency with which Australians read physical copies has decreased: Daily reading of physical books has decreased from 21% in 2019 to 17% in 2022 and reading every 2–3 days has decreased from 17% in 2019 to 13% in 2022.

More Australian readers are reading ebooks and listening to audiobooks. In 2022, 60% of Australians were reading ebooks, up from 57% in 2019, while one third (34%) of Australians listen to audiobooks, up from 31% in 2019. Some Australians (16%) reported that their engagement with ebooks increased compared to before the pandemic. Young Australians are more likely than older Australians to report an increased engagement with ebooks (25% of those aged 15–24, compared to 20% of those aged 25–49 and 9% of those aged 50 and over). However, as shown from the results above, physical books remain the overall most common way of engaging with written material.

The survey report also provided data from Amazon Kindle, which shows that half (50%) of Australians only read between one and five books in 2022, but 44% of the population expressed an intention to increase their reading habits in 2023. According to Kindle statistics, the most popular genre of books is mystery (31%), followed by true crime (26%), nonfiction (24%) and romance (20%).

Writing

The survey also provided information about engagement with creative writing. One in seven (14%) Australians produce creative writing, which is slightly down from 16% in 2019. Within this group, in 2022, five percent of Australians produced creative writing to engage with their cultural background, language group or community in 2022, which is a slight decrease from 6% in 2019.

Results showed the diversity of Australians engaging with creative writing, across multiple demographic categories. Over two in five (44%) gender diverse respondents surveyed produce creative writing, compared to 14% of men and 13% of women. One in five (19%) respondents with disability produce creative writing compared to 13% of those without disability. One in four (25%) First Nations respondents produced creative writing, compared to 13% of non-Indigenous respondents. A quarter (24%) of culturally and linguistically diverse respondents produced creative writing, compared to 11% of other respondents. Young Australians (29%) are more likely than their older counterparts to produce creative writing (16% of those aged 25–49 and 6% of those over 50).

Genre engagement varied, with 6% of Australians writing novels or short stories, 4% poetry, 3% creative nonfiction (such as biography or history), 2% instructional nonfiction (such as guidebooks or cookbooks), 2% graphic novels or comics, and 2% plays.

Category: Local news