The most reading country in the world: list, rating. What do teenagers and adults read today? Favorite books

In the modern world, the book as a paper carrier of information can no longer be considered a priority and the only source of knowledge. For young people of the age of electronic technology and the development of the perception of information through all senses, an audiobook, a screen version or a performance occupy roughly the same position.

And yet it's nice to realize that the value of reading is not lost, and Russia remains a reading country. Let us not in the first place, but various studies and polls are pleased with optimistic ratings.

Rating Ranking разнь

As the well-known proverb says, how many tastes - so many opinions. What teens read, adults will not read, and vice versa. With respect to research and the formulation of top-rankings, this principle reflects the diversity of options for setting primary objectives. There is a rating of the most reading countries, which is based on the number of hours spent by residents to read books in a certain period of time. And another poll will make such a list based on a criterion such as the number of books that are read in the last month or are being read at the moment. Book publishers will offer a rating of sales, and providers - the number of downloads of content. The aesthetes will try to determine the respondents' favorite books.

The most popular questionnaire

Today, the International Research Institute for Marketing Research GfK is considered the largest public opinion study site in the world. An online survey conducted by this company in February 2017 showed that Russia confidently entered the top three in terms of the amount of time it took to read.

The most reading country in the world, according to this survey, is China. The study involved 17 countries and a dozen leaders whose citizens read every day or at least once a week (this was the control question). The rating is as follows:

• China (70%);
• Russia (59%);
• Spain (57%);
• Italy (56%) and Great Britain (56%);
• The United States (55%);
• Argentina and Brazil (53%);
• Mexico (52%);
• Canada (51%).

The smallest number of respondents responded positively to the control question in South Korea and Belgium - 37% each.

World trends identified by the survey

The survey showed gender equality. This means that daily or almost daily books are read by both women (32%) and men (27%). The rich read more often (35%) than the poor (24%).

On average, the number of people who read books at least once a week throughout the world is 50.7%. However, it should be noted that 22,000 respondents from 17 countries participated in the survey. This is not the largest sample for the objectivity of statistical data.

Booksellers according to the version of the World Culture Score Index (2016)

This international rating is based on the number of hours a week spent by residents after reading the books:

• According to this study, the most reading country in the world is in Asia, and this is India, where 10 hours and 22 minutes the average Indian spends reading. This country reads a lot in Indian and English.
• The second position was taken by the Thais (9 hours and 24 minutes). In Thailand, also read in many languages, and among the most popular authors note the Thai poet of the traditional style of Naowoat Phongpeibun.
• In third place is China with 8 hours spent reading a week. The most favorite books here are historical novels and books on the history of the republic. Very popular biography of Steve Jobs.
• Russia is on the 7th place (7 hours and 6 minutes) after the Philippines, Egypt and the Czech Republic. What is read in Russia? Our compatriots prefer Turgenev, Gogol, Akunin, Swift and Dumas, and approximately in equal proportions.
• Sweden and France divided the 8th and 9th positions with their reading time of 6 hours and 54 minutes.
• And closes the list of the most reading countries of the world Hungary, where residents read 6 hours and 48 minutes a week.

It is interesting that Russians read more for 2 hours than Americans. This is a very interesting poll, is not it?

PayPal e-platform questionnaire

A poll in ten countries, made jointly by PayPal and SuperData, was based on the amount of downloaded content. The study involved Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, USA, Japan and other countries.

The data showed that the most reading country in the world is Russia. 33% of survey participants in our country read e-books every day, another 30% read from 4 to 6 days a week. The cheapness of e-books is the main priority for 61% of Russians. The others in the priorities indicated the availability of rare books. The most favorite genres were fantasy, thrillers and mysticism. Most books are read from smartphones (54%), less often - from laptops and tablets. Special electronic readers are used by 35% of readers.

An interesting fact: Russians listen to classical music more often than residents of other countries participating in the survey. 46% of our fellow citizens indicated their priority in classical music.

The view of booksellers

Publishers and book distribution corporations have their own view of things. The publishing group "Exmo-AST" and the book network "Bukvoyd" give other data. According to their polls, Russians spend 9 minutes a day on reading, they spend an hour on the Net and watch TV for about two hours.

Book publishers believe that the real state of the reading nation should be estimated by the volume of sales in the book market. The numbers say, rather, the opposite. So, in 2016 the turnover of book trade amounted to 71 billion rubles, which is 12% less than in 2011.

But it is worth noting the growth in sales of electronic literary content: during the same period, the sales turnover of e-books increased by 3 billion rubles. And this segment of the book market occupies only four percent of the total book trade. Legally buy electronic content is only one of twenty consumers. And this problem also worries its owners.

Polls are not reliable. And then what?

So, the surveys are not reliable enough for their limited sample and specificity of control questions. Sometimes changing one word in a question can give absolutely incommensurable results. And here anthropology with its scientific tools can come to the rescue. Under the leadership of the famous Russian scientist Mikhail Alekseevsky, the Center for Urban Anthropology conducted several large-scale studies in the region of interest to us. There were very interesting trends in the quality and quantity of the Russian reader.

It turned out that reading for our fellow citizens is endowed with symbolism and sacredness. A stable stereotype that books can not be destroyed, pushes citizens at such cunning as storing them in garages and attics. And bukkrossing - a form of exchange of books - is taking root in Russia slowly. The most valuable literature is considered a classic and those who read a lot, and those who do not read at all. The stereotype "classic - our everything" is reliably broadcast from generation to generation of Russians.

For the soul our compatriots read fantasy, detectives and other genres. But Russians do not consider this literature to be valuable. It was revealed that the main factor influencing the propensity to read in general is family traditions. What adults read is most likely to be read by children.

Institute of Family and Translation of the Value of Reading

The family continues to fulfill the function of introducing the value of reading. But this is done purely for utilitarian reasons. It is necessary to read, because you will write correctly. A lot of reading is needed to finish the school well and go to a good university.

A separate phenomenon is the social transmission of family predilections. The reading generation of the intelligentsia of the post-Soviet space has an impact on the perception of young people. According to some surveys, the first place in the popularity of authors and works of classical literature that teenagers read is the "Master and Margarita" of Bulgakov. Behind him, young people celebrate the novels of classics of foreign literature - Salinger, Remarque and Saint Exupery. The twenty Strugatsky brothers and Ilf and Petrov fell into the top twenty. They entered the life of youth not from teachers of the school system, but through family traditions.

Russians remain a reading nation, retaining the title "The Most Readable Country in the World" in ratings and opinion polls. The legacy of the generation, whose childhood passed beyond the ideological fence, grew up with the heroes of Dumas and Cervantes, Pushkin and Dostoevsky, continues to shape the worldview of progressive youth. Namely, Russia aspires to it as a new carrier of literary Russian-speaking and patriotic consciousness.