In 2017, the LoveOzYA committee conducted a survey into the reading habits of the Australian YA community. Committee chair Stacey Malacari reports on the survey’s findings.

The LoveOzYA movement was launched in May 2015 to support Australian YA authors and to promote local content to local readers. Since then, authors, booksellers, bloggers, teachers and YA fans have all jumped on board to help the movement. In 2017, to better facilitate this mission, the LoveOzYA committee conducted a survey of the reading habits of our community, which was distributed via our mailing list and social media network. The survey served two purposes: to uncover data about Australian YA readers and to provide an open forum for the community to share its thoughts on the future of LoveOzYA.

The survey attracted more than 800 respondents, 28% of whom were aged 12 to 19 years old. The largest portion of respondents were aged 20 to 29 (32%). An overwhelming majority of surveyed readers (90%) identified as female, although male readers were slightly more represented among teenagers, (13% compared to seven percent overall). This could indicate the potential for a growing male readership or, on the flip side, a declining interest in the genre as boys age.