Reading format preference survey

Recent British research has found that 62% of 16-24s prefer buying books over ebooks. When asked which products currently available for download were preferred as physical objects, 62% agreed with books. Magazines and newspapers collectively had 47% prefer the physical form. Considering magazines are considered more visually attractive due to its use of imagery and glossy paper, these statistics show text-heavy books still have an audience with young people.
Voxburner. (2013). Buying digital content. UK
http://www.voxburner.com/publications/347-62-of-16-24s-prefer-books-as-physical-products

Pleasure reading survey

The National Reading Campaign recently commissioned a study by Environics Research Group to gather benchmark data about the pleasure reading habits of Canadians. Based on a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Canadians, the survey results revealed a population of passionate readers still very engaged with traditional reading platforms, and a group of Canadians not reading for pleasure in any medium.

82% of Canadians read for pleasure as often or more often than they did last year. Books are the overwhelmingly preferred medium, with 70% of readers preferring them to magazines, newspapers, and blogs. While level of education is linked to the amount of reading done for pleasure, level of income is not. Those reading the most have family incomes of from $30,000 to under $50,000.
Although the percentage of Canadians reading for pleasure is high, 12% of Canadians reported reading for pleasure less than they did last year and 5% admitted to not reading for pleasure at all. These figures combine to reveal that one in five Canadians does not read for enjoyment or does so less than they used to.
Results of the survey can be read at: Environics – National Reading Campaign – Survey report.

Reading for pleasure impact study

Children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at school than their peers, according to research from the Institute of Education in the UK. The study found that readers made more progress in math, vocabulary, and spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read. Researchers found that reading for pleasure was more important for children’s cognitive development between ages 10 and 16 than their parents’ level of education. combined effect on children’s progress of reading books often, going to the library regularly and reading newspapers at 16 was four times greater than the advantage children gained from having a parent with a degree. Children who were read to regularly by their parents at age 5 performed better in all three tests at age 16 than those who were not helped in this way.
Alice Sullivan and Matt Brown. (2013). Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
http://www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/news.aspx?itemid=2740&itemTitle=Reading+for+pleasure+puts+children+ahead+in+the+classroom%2C+study+finds&sitesectionid=27