Two years after the pandemic and the confinement of March 2020, the surprising growth in reading habits in Spain seems a consolidated fact.
According to the barometer of reading and purchase habits in Spain 2021, prepared by the Federation of Guilds of Editors of Spain (Fgee) in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, 64.4% of the Spaniards read books as a
Leisure form during the last year.
52.7%, he did it at least weekly frequency.
At the 2020 barometer, presented a year ago, these percentages were 64.0% and 52.7% respectively.
In 2012, the percentage of weekly readers was at 47.2%, 15 points less than now.
According to the editors, that small year-on-year rise is a success in a year in which the alternatives to the book returned to normal after confinement.
Those readers who were reunited to the book in confinement have been left.
Who are they?
The shredder of the figures reveals the patterns already known for years: women read more than men (69% of readers compared to 59% of men) and the best indices are given in the northern half of Spain.
Madrid (73.5% of readers);
Basque Country (68.2%), Navarra (68.1%) and Catalonia (66.7%) are the most reading communities.
Castilla-La Manche 59.8%), which presents worse data.
Among the age groups, the best results are given among children between 14 and 19 years old (74.8% of the reading population in free time).
And then, the obvious: people with university education read much more (82.1% of annual leagors) than those who stayed in primary education (37.1%).
Some more data: After years of stagnation, the percentage of book readers in digital format descends a few tenths, from 30.3 to 29.3% of the population.
In contrast, the use of audiobooks increases from 2.1% from 2020 to 5.2%.
The percentage of people who bought no textbooks in bookstores increased from 51.7% by 2020 to 52.3% in 2021. In the 2011-2021 period, this percentage has increased by 10.7 points.
On the other hand, visits to libraries did not just go back.
The Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, has presented the Barometer next to the General Director of the Book, María José Gálvez.
In the intervention of him, ICETA described as “very good”, the data even if he has reminded that there is still a “too high” percentage of people who never read.
“It seems simpler than those who already read read more than those who do not read themselves to reading.”
