A YouGov poll in 2025 stated that 40% of UK adults have not read or listened to a single book in the last 12 months, and The Reading Agency’s “State of the Nation” report in the same year found that 35% of UK adults identify themselves as “lapsed readers,” having stopped their regular reading habits.
Perhaps the most worrying part of this trend can be seen in children; the latest annual survey by the National Literacy Trust showed the lowest levels of daily reading (18.7% of 8- to 18-year-olds) since records began in 2005.
The Times columnist and canary in the mine, James Marriott, has been sounding the alarm call about the death of reading for some time. You can catch his documentary podcasts on BBC Sounds – I particularly recommend the series “How Reading Made Us” – and September marks the publication of his new book The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society.
Anniversaries prompt reflection on life’s big questions
This year marks two anniversaries – 244 years since the end of the American Revolutionary War with the British surrender …