Reading in Spain is growing among young adults, led by college-educated urban young women, according to the FGEE’s new study. Image – Getty: Sana Grebinets
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Spain’s Typical Reader: The College Educated Urban Female
Assuing today (January 22) its 2024 Barometer of Reading and Book Purchasing Habits in Spain, the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España, , the Federation of Spanish Publishers’ Guilds (FGEE) is announcing good news.
“Reading rates in our country continue to grow,” the federation’s media message says, “making it one of the main leisure activities for Spaniards.
According to the new research prepared again this year by Conecta for the publishers, “0.3 percent of the population in our country surveyed says it has read for work or studies in the last year.
“For the first time, leisure readers exceed 65 percent of the population” studied.
Daniel Fernández
Daniel Fernandez, the Publishers’ Federation president, says in a report provided to Publishing Perspectives, “In recent years, the barometer has been marked by the sharp increase in reading rates that occurred as a result of the pandemic.
“Today, we see that in addition to these figures having been consolidated, there’s still growth in the percentage of people who read in their free time.
“This study shows a positive trend, however that should lead us to double down on our efforts to reduce that third of the population that still does not have reading among its leisure activities.”
More top-line points from the “barometer” are:
- The percentage of frequent readers remains above 50 percent (51.2 percent). Since 2017, it has increased by 3.5 percentage points.
- “The data disproves the myth that young people do not read.” 75.3 percent of the population surveyed between 14 and 24 years old reports reading books in their free time.”
Some 70.3 percent of the Spanish population aged 14 years and older reports reading books.
Of these, the majority, at 65.5 percent, say they read books in their free time. Image: FGEE, 2024 Barometer of Reading and Book Purchasing Habits in Spain
The Gender Divide, Youth, and Age
The profile of the typical reader in Spain is described by the new study as “a young woman with university studies who lives in an urban area.”
Here, then, is another reflection of many Western publishing’s markets’ trend toward women in the consumer base and perhaps more content for them than for men.
The report looks deeper into this gender point, revealing that, “In 2024, the percentage of women who said they read in their free time increased to 71.7 percent of the total. They also exceeded men in all age groups and the gap recorded between the two genders in the latest barometer increased — 12.7 percentage points compared to 9.3 points in 2023.”
Good news, however, arrives from the younger readership, the publishers writing:
“The study contributes to breaking one of the false myths that persist in our society, which states that young people do not read.
“According to the barometer data, by age, the population between 15 and 24 years old continues to be reading the most in our country, reaching 75.3 percent of the total in that age group.
“Also, there is another fact that has drawn attention year after year and that is the strong growth experienced among the older population, aged 65 and older. Since 2017, there has been an increase of 10.6 percentage points in the reading rates of this population. These figures seem to reflect the effect of the incorporation into these age groups of the generations of boys and girls who were accessing education and, in it, acquired the reading habit.”
In short, the study seems to confirm that if citizens can be well-grounded in reading when young, they’ll still be reading in more advanced years.
‘The habit of reading in free time is largely determined by age, sex, educational level and region,’ in Spain, per the newly reported study from 2024. ‘During 2024, reading has grown among women, young people, older people and those with primary education.’ Image: FGEE, 2024 Barometer of Reading and Book Purchasing Habits in Spain
More Notes From the Survey
- “Differences in reading rates persist between autonomous communities, between women and men, and between different age groups,” we read in the data reported today. “The percentage of readers among those over 65 continues to improve, which would reflect the effects of higher educational levels.”
- The percentage of Spaniards who say they never or almost never read is decreasing, being gauged at 34.5 percent in 2024.
- Lack of time—who can’t relate to that?—remains the main reason given by those who say they don’t include reading among their regular activities. And 27 percent of those people say they prefer to spend their time on other entertainments.
- Children’s reading continues to be the majority sector, the new report says, with an increasing number of households with children under 6 years of age whose parents read books to them (78 percent compared to 76 percent in 2023). That last point will cheer many in youth reading, the importance of parents’ and other guardians’ reading to youngsters now being almost universally understood as critical in the development of reading as a lifetime habit.
- Among children aged 6 to 9, 82.5 percent report reading in their free time.
- The percentage of Spaniards who tell Conecta’s researchers that they will buy a book in 2025 (53.8 percent) grew. Since 2017, it has increased by 6.5 percentage points.
- Traditional bookstores are reported to be holding on as the most common channel for buying books, followed by Internet retail outlets and bookstore chains.
- The percentage of digital readers is reported to be growing after a few years of stagnation. That share of the sample has increased to 31.7 percent.
- The percentage of self-reported audiobook users now reaches 7.9 percent of the population, with the highest proportion among the population aged 14 to 45.
A Quick Look at Digital Formats
“Nearly 40 percent asked said they ebooks for a fee, which is an increase compared to the previous year and almost 10 points since 2017.
Some 61.5 percent said they downloaded them free from the Internet. 65.9 percent of those interviewed for the barometer who download e-books free said they know perfectly well when the download is not legal.
The percentage of audiobook users continues to increase in Spain, the publishers report, now at 7.9 percent of the population older than 14, with a higher proportion among younger people.
More on the Spanish market is here, more on reading and reading rates in world markets is here, and more on the work of the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España is here.
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