Infographic: Where Reading is More (& Less) Popular (2024)

It’s National Libraries Week in the United States and to mark it we’re looking at readership patterns around the world. As data from Statista’s Consumer Insights survey shows, women were more likely to say that reading is one of their personal hobbies than men in all of the selected countries. The gender gap was widest in Germany, with a 20 percentage point difference, followed by Spain and Italy (with 19 p.p. difference each). Spain (58 percent) had the highest share of female readers who considered it one of their personal hobbies of the surveyed countries included in this chart, while Mexico had the highest share of men who said the same (41 percent).

In the United States, 44 percent of women said reading was one of their main pastimes versus 30 percent of men. When looking at the U.S. adult surveyed population with both genders combined, the share of people selecting reading in response to this question increased with age (30 percent of 18-19 year olds, 32 percent 20-29 year olds, 36 percent 30-39 year olds, 38 percent for 40-49 year olds, 41 percent 50-59 year olds, 44 percent 60-64 year olds).