Almost 60% of Latin American youths consider themselves readers and 8.5% do not read, according to a report

57.9% of young Latin Americans say that reading is part of their daily lives, while 8.5% see themselves as non-readers, according to a survey presented this Friday by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI). On the eve of International Education Day, the OEI presented the report “Perceptions and Practices of Adolescents and Young People in Ibero-America around Reading, Writing and Orality”. The study is based on a survey with nearly 3,000 children, adolescents and young people between 10 and 22 years old from countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela —both in rural and urban areas.

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The survey reflects that 32.93% identify as a “reader” and 25% define themselves as a “regular reader”, which totals 57.93% of young readers. In contrast, 33.54% say they are a “light reader” and 8.54% perceive themselves as a “non-reader”. Furthermore, the study indicates that 48.99% of young people state that reading is a recurring part of their daily lives and in the use of their free time, although rarely as a sole activity; they usually combine it with social and family life and with the use of social networks and the internet. Reading by age and countries
Among children aged 10 to 12, 54.4% identify as non-readers or infrequent readers, but this trend reverses in the 14 to 16 age group, where 59.2% consider themselves regular readers and the number of young people who recognize themselves as readers increases. From the age of 17, there are no young people who identify as non-readers. In the group of regular readers, young people from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, and Portugal stand out especially. In the opposite profile, young people from countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil predominate, where reading appears less linked to personal enjoyment or leisure, and more to school. According to the report, the main obstacle to consolidating the reading habit is lack of time (43.55%), followed by difficulty concentrating (29.42%). The study also warns that the intensive use of the internet and social media (44%) is among the factors that most hinder the development of the conventional reading habit. This is compounded by the illegal downloading of books, accessed by 63.55% of the young people surveyed, which poses additional challenges for the book ecosystem and the promotion of reading, according to the OEI. With the report, this organization underlines the need to strengthen public policies, educational strategies, and cultural actions that promote reading from an early age and recognizes the new digital contexts and other transformations in the ways of reading in the region.