Annual Average Reading Volume of Korean Adults Drops to 1.9 Books "Using Other Content"

On the 31st, as the peak summer vacation continues, citizens visiting Kyobo Bookstore in Jongno-gu, Seoul, are cooling off by reading books. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jong-gil] It has been revealed that the reading volume of adults in South Korea has decreased.

According to the '2019 National Reading Survey' report released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 11th, the annual average number of paper books and e-books (excluding textbooks, study guides, exam books, magazines, and comics) read by Korean adults is 7.5. This is 1.9 books less than the 9.4 books recorded two years ago in 2017. On the other hand, the average reading volume of elementary, middle, and high school students was 40.7 books, an increase of 6.4 books from 34.3 books two years ago.

Differences appeared in paper book reading volume. Adults read 6.1 books annually, which is 2.2 books less than two years ago. Students read 32.4 books, an increase of 3.8 books. For e-books, adults read 1.2 books, a 0.1% increase, while students read 5.6 books, a decrease of 0.1 books.

The annual reading rate was found to be 55.7% for adults and 92.1% for students. The reading rate refers to the percentage of people who have read at least one general book in a year.

The average weekday reading time for adults was 31.8 minutes, an increase of 8.4 minutes compared to two years ago. On holidays, it was 27.5 minutes, an increase of 0.4 minutes. Students’ average weekday reading time was 89.5 minutes, which increased by 40.1 minutes.

As for reasons why reading books is difficult, adults most frequently cited ‘using other content besides books (29.1%)’. Students most often responded ‘no time due to school or academy (27.6%)’.

This survey was conducted from October 2018 to September 2019 targeting 6,000 adults aged 19 and over nationwide and 3,000 students from grades 4 to 6 in elementary school, middle school, and high school. Audiobook reading volume was also included in the statistics. Adults read 0.2 books and students read 2.7 books, respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.