A new report has identified what every former child already knows: making reading feel like homework is a great way to ensure nobody does it voluntarily. The study, which analyzed survey data from HarperCollins, NielsenIQ, and The Reading Agency, found that the “relentless” focus on measuring literacy progress in schools has “pushed reading for pleasure to the margins.”
Parents and schools both recognize that reading for pleasure matters, the report notes, but their “understandable focus on literacy skills is actively undermining it.” The numbers back this up: daily reading for pleasure among five- to 17-year-olds in the UK fell from 39% in 2012 to 25% in 2025, while the proportion of children who rarely or never read for pleasure tripled from 5% to 15%.
There’s a glimmer of hope, though - at least for teens. Daily and weekly reading for pleasure actually increased between 2024 and 2025 among 11- to 17-year-old boys and girls. For 14- to 17-year-old boys, whom researchers describe as “among the hardest-to-reach” in reading encouragement, the percentage who never read fell from 36% to 30% year-on-year. Fewer teens now think “books aren’t cool” (down from 45% to 38% for the 11-17 age group), and fewer say they’d “rather watch TV, play video games or go online than read” (down from 76% to 69% for 14- to 17-year-olds).
Social media is actually helping, with the proportion of 14- to 17-year-olds finding books via BookTok rising from 23% in 2024 to 27% in 2025, and YouTube discovery among 11- to 17-year-olds climbing from 25% to 30%. The results for younger children, however, are less encouraging. Only 32% of five- to 10-year-olds read daily for pleasure last year - unchanged for three years and down from 55% in 2012. The proportion of five- to seven-year-olds who rarely or never read for pleasure rose from 8% to 11% in a single year.
The report identifies two main barriers: kids struggling to discover books they enjoy, and screens winning their attention. Researchers suggest removing pressure and making reading a social activity. Being read to throughout childhood has a significant impact, with children “who are read to daily three times more likely to choose to read independently, daily, than if they are read to weekly by their parents,” said HarperCollins consumer insight director Alison David.
Yet three-fifths of three- to seven-year-olds are not read to daily. Despite this, 71% of parents with children aged 13 and under said they wished their children would spend more time reading books - up from 65% in 2019. Nearly half (41%) of parents believe reading for pleasure is more important than ever. But when parents with five- to 10-year-olds were asked why they read to them, the top two reasons were literacy-focused, and 58% did not select enjoyment as a reason. Parents need to understand “the difference between literacy and reading for pleasure,” the report states.
Focus groups identified a “fatalistic” attitude among parents who assume some kids will enjoy reading and others won’t. Some even believe reading to their child will make them lazy and less likely to become independent readers. The report stresses the importance of reading to children beyond the age when they can “decode” the language themselves: “They still need to be read to for the enjoyment it brings, for habit forming and for encouragement to read independently.”
David’s advice: go beyond bedtime reading. “Read to children often and anywhere” - take a book to the park, on the bus, or to a coffee shop. “Read to children when they are in the bath, or eating lunch. Make a den, put a blanket over a table and sit in there to read. Build excitement - talk about how excited you are to continue the story.” She also suggests funny voices and accents, because children “love it.”
The report concludes that by helping parents understand that encouraging reading for pleasure “requires a different approach from supporting literacy - that both are essential, both are achievable - and by giving them practical tools and compelling reasons to act, we can make change happen.”