Cyprus records highest youth non-reading rate in Eurostat survey

Nicosia, Cyprus. Almost three-quarters of people aged 16–24 in Cyprus had read no books in the previous year, according to a Eurostat survey released two years ago. The rate of 74.9 per cent was the highest among the European countries surveyed, well above Italy, the next highest at 53.5 per cent.

Cyprus ranks near bottom overall

The survey, which attracted widespread discussion, ranked Cyprus second-last in the EU for book reading, ahead only of Romania. Its age-specific findings received less attention.

Respondents aged 16 and over were asked how many books they had read for pleasure during the previous year, excluding schoolbooks and manuals used for work. The survey covered fiction and non-fiction, including e-books and audiobooks.

In Cyprus, 67.3 per cent reported reading no books, compared with 70.6 per cent in Romania. The corresponding figures were 69.7 per cent in Turkey and 70.8 per cent in Albania, two non-EU countries included in the study.

The EU-wide figure cited for people who had read no books was 47.2 per cent.

Younger readers buck the European trend

Across the EU, younger people were more likely to read books than older people: the non-reading rate fell to 38 per cent among those aged 16–24. In Cyprus, the pattern was reversed, with the youth rate substantially higher than the overall figure.

Romania’s non-reading rate among 16–24-year-olds was 37.3 per cent, close to the EU average, indicating that its higher overall rate was driven by older age groups.

Among boys and young men aged 16–24 in Cyprus, 82.9 per cent had read no books in the previous year, nearly 20 percentage points higher than Malta’s 63.2 per cent.

For girls and young women in Cyprus, the figure was 66.3 per cent, more than twice the EU average of 28.3 per cent.

Limits to the comparisons

The EU averages cited date from 2020 and do not come directly from the same survey, limiting direct comparisons.

It is also unclear whether comic books were included, although they may have been, or whether the research accounted for people who read newspapers and scientific articles extensively rather than books. Such reading may not have been reflected in the results.

A formative age group

The most pronounced findings concern the 16–24 age group, although non-reading was also widespread among other age groups in Cyprus.

The significance of the youth figures lies in their coverage of a formative period, when adult identity, views on society and politics, and imagination are developing. In other countries, this is the age group in which book reading is most common.