China Institute of Press and Publication: The 19th National Reading Survey in 2022

Since 1999, the National Reading Survey organized and implemented by the China Institute of Publishing Research has been conducted for 19 consecutive times. The 19th National Reading Survey was launched in August 2021, the sampling of sample cities was carried out in September 2021, the questionnaire collection and questionnaire review were carried out from October to December 2021, and the data processing, data weighting and data analysis were carried out from January to April 2022.

This survey still strictly follows the principle of "same caliber and comparability" and continues to use four sets of questionnaires to survey the population of all age groups. Three different sets of questionnaires were used to interview the three age groups of minors (0-8 years old, 9-13 years old, and 14-17 years old).

This survey adopts online survey and telephone survey methods, and collects samples in 162 cities, covering 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in my country. The effective sample size of this survey is 42,456 (in addition, this survey is strongly supported by the "Study Strong Country" learning platform, and 1.26 million samples are obtained through the questionnaire survey of the "Study Strong Country" learning platform), of which adult samples account for 74.5% of the total sample size, and samples of minors under the age of 18 account for 25.5% of the total sample size, and the ratio of urban and rural samples is 3.3:1.

After the samples were collected, we weighted the samples according to the data from the seventh national census and used SPSS sociological statistics software for analysis. This survey can be extended to my country's population of 1.322 billion, of which urban residents accounted for 56.3% and rural residents accounted for 43.7%. The main findings of this survey are now published as follows:

In 2021, the comprehensive reading rate of various media including books, newspapers, magazines and digital publications among adult citizens in my country was 81.6%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from 81.3% in 2020.

In 2021, the book reading rate among adult citizens in my country was 59.7%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from 59.5% in 2020; the newspaper reading rate was 24.6%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from 25.5% in 2020; the journal reading rate was 18.4%, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from 18.7% in 2020; the exposure rate of digital reading methods (online reading, mobile phone reading, e-reader reading, Pad reading, etc.) was 79.6%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from 79.4% in 2020.

From the perspective of the distribution characteristics of digital reading, more and more young and middle-aged groups have become the main body of digital reading. Specifically, among the adults in my country who are exposed to digital reading, those aged 18-59 account for 92.8%, and those aged 60 and above account for 7.2%.

From the comparison between urban and rural areas, the listening rate of urban adult residents in my country in 2021 was 34.6%, 7.8 percentage points higher than the listening rate of rural adult residents of 26.8%.

A survey of the media for listening to books among adult citizens in my country found that a relatively high proportion of people, at 17.9%, chose to listen to books through "mobile audio APP platforms"; 11.2% chose to listen to books through "WeChat public accounts or mini-programs"; 10.8% chose to listen to books through "smart speakers"; 8.9% and 5.7% chose to listen to books through "radio" and "audio readers or voice reading machines" respectively.

In 2021, the awareness rate of national reading brand activities among adult citizens in my country reached 73.1%. Among them, the "local city reading festival" and "book fair" had the highest awareness rates, with a selection rate of 28.8% each; the selection rate of "institutional enterprise/campus reading activities" was 28.5%; the awareness rates of "local reading clubs" and "city reading lecture halls" were 26.9% and 23.2% respectively.

A survey on satisfaction with reading activities in which people have participated found that among adult citizens who have participated in national reading brand activities, more than 70% (71.6%) were satisfied with the reading activities they had participated in ("very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied"), 24.5% were satisfied with the reading activities they had participated in, and only 3.9% were dissatisfied with the reading activities they had participated in ("very dissatisfied" or "somewhat dissatisfied").

Judging from the usage of various public reading service facilities, among my country's urban adult residents in 2021, 14.5% had used public libraries; 10.5% had used community reading rooms/community bookstores/city reading rooms; and 10.1% had used newsstands.

Among the adult urban residents who have used the above public reading service facilities, the satisfaction rate for public libraries was the highest, at 77.1%; the satisfaction rate for community reading rooms/community bookstores/city reading rooms was 70.6%; and the satisfaction rate for newsstands was 62.3%.

An analysis of the amount of books read by minors found that in 2021, the average reading volume of extracurricular books among Chinese teenagers aged 14-17 was the largest, at 13.10 books, higher than 13.07 books in 2020; the average reading volume of books among children aged 0-8 was 10.33 books, higher than 10.02 books in 2020; the average reading volume of books among children aged 9-13 was 10.21 books, higher than 9.63 books in 2020. Based on the above data, the average reading volume of books among minors aged 0-17 in my country in 2021 was 10.93 books, an increase of 0.22 books from 10.71 books in 2020.

In terms of the reading time of minors, the average daily reading time of children aged 9-13 was 25.48 minutes, an increase of 2.22 minutes from 23.26 minutes in 2020; the average daily reading time of teenagers aged 14-17 was 51.90 minutes, an increase of 0.09 minutes from 51.81 minutes in 2020.

In 2021, the exposure rate of digital reading methods for minors aged 0-17 in my country was 72.5%. Specifically, the exposure rate of digital reading methods for children aged 0-8 was 69.2%, the exposure rate of digital reading methods for children aged 9-13 was 76.4%, and the exposure rate of digital reading methods for teenagers aged 14-17 was 74.8%.

In 2021, the listening rate of minors aged 0-17 in my country was 32.7%. Specifically, the listening rate of children aged 0-8 was 33.7%, the listening rate of children aged 9-13 was 31.4%, and the listening rate of teenagers aged 14-17 was 32.6%.

An analysis of parent-child early reading behavior found that in 2021, 73.2% of families with children aged 0-8 in my country usually had the habit of reading with their children, an increase of 1.5 percentage points from 71.7% in 2020. In addition, in families with children aged 0-8 who read, parents spent an average of 26.14 minutes a day reading with their children, an increase of 0.33 minutes from 25.81 minutes in 2020.

In order to comprehensively reflect the overall situation of national reading and its changing trends, we have developed a national reading index index system. The reading index index system contains 25 indicators, which are divided into two aspects: "personal reading index" and "public reading service index". Among them, the "personal reading index" includes three aspects: the number of books read and owned by individuals, the reading rate of various publications, and personal reading cognition and evaluation, which comprehensively reflects the national reading level; the "public reading service index" includes three aspects: the national awareness, use and satisfaction evaluation of public reading service facilities and national reading activities, which comprehensively reflects the construction of public facilities for national reading and the level of public services. The reading index is obtained by stratifying and fitting the 25 indicators.

According to calculations, the national reading index in 2021 was 70.62 points, an increase of 0.17 points from 70.45 points in 2020. Among them, the personal reading index was 73.09 points, an increase of 0.04 points from 73.05 points in 2020; the public reading service index was 67.66 points, an increase of 0.03 points from 67.63 points in 2020.