Research from the UK’s National Literacy Trust shows that teenagers value, enjoy and find comfort in reading, but are struggling to prioritise it in their busy lives – with teenage boys’ reading ‘especially fragile’.
Reading enjoyment and daily reading among children and young people are now at their lowest levels in over 20 years in the UK, according to a new report published by the National Literacy Trust.
Reading enjoyment and daily reading both decline sharply as children move into adolescence, with the steepest drops occurring in the early teenage years.
The report is based on responses from more than 80,000 young people aged 11–16 in the UK, with 46,000 written comments from teenagers describing their experiences of reading, in their own words.
The findings challenge the idea that teenagers simply lose interest in reading. Instead, reading often becomes harder to sustain as routines weaken and demands increase.
These new UK findings align with recent research from Australia and reinforce the key principles of engaging young adults in reading including: supporting autonomy of choice, linking to other popular entertainment, and making time in teen’s schedules for reading.
Adolescence is a critical period for reading engagement. While reading has declined over time, many teenagers continue to value reading for learning, enjoyment and wellbeing.
However, increasing pressure on time, changing routines and competing priorities mean that reading is harder to sustain as young people get older, even when it is viewed positively.
This is particularly the case for teenage boys, whose reading habits are ‘especially fragile’ during adolescence and are less likely to see a bounceback.
Key insights
Reading enjoyment and daily reading decline for both boys and girls during adolescence, but gender gaps become more pronounced as young people get older.
- More girls than boys enjoy reading at every age. In 2025, 54.2% of girls aged 8 to 11 enjoyed reading compared with 40.0% of boys; by the age of 14 to 16, this gap had widened, with 37.7% of girls enjoying reading compared with just 18.8% of boys.
- Daily reading is lower for boys at every age. In 2025, 36.0% of girls aged 8 to 11 read daily compared with 26.3% of boys; by the age of 14 to 16, this had fallen to 17.6% of girls and 9.8% of boys.
- Enjoyment and daily reading levels saw a steeper decline among girls than boys as they transitioned from primary to secondary school. However, boys’ enjoyment and daily reading remained persistently low from mid-adolescence onwards, while girls’ enjoyment partially recovered.
Teenagers associate reading with learning, knowledge and wellbeing, although motivations vary by gender.
- Girls’ most commonly reported motivations relate to emotional wellbeing. The three most frequently cited reasons for reading among girls aged 11 to 16 were to relax (48.6%), to learn new words (44.4%), and to escape to another world (39.7%).
- Boys’ most commonly reported reason for reading was to learn about new things (38.8%), followed by learning new words (36.4%). However, over a third of boys (34.9%) also said they read to relax, making wellbeing-related motivation a significant driver.
- Boys’ reading is more often sustained through habit, routine or perceived usefulness, making it more susceptible to disruption as routines weaken and demands increase.
Teenagers are most encouraged to read when reading feels relevant, self-directed and easy to fit into their lives
- Choice and personal relevance are the strongest motivators. Around 40.5% of boys and 50.7% of girls said they would be encouraged to read more if they could find books that matched their interests or hobbies, while 30.7% of boys and 43.1% of girls said being free to choose what they read would make them more likely to read.
- Links to familiar media are particularly motivating. Over a third of boys (36.8%) and over half of girls (51.4%) said they would be encouraged to read the book of a film or TV series they had watched.
- Time and space matter. 24.2% of boys and 37.3% of girls said having time to relax or unwind would encourage them to read more, highlighting the role of pressure and routine.
Read our full list of top tips to support teen reading, and explore the full Teenage reading (Re)framing the challenge report.