It comes amid what the charity is terming a “reading for pleasure” crisis – its research last term revealed that only 35% of children and young people aged 8 to 18 say they enjoy reading in their free time, the lowest level ever recorded and an 8.8% drop on 2023.
Now a second piece of research published this week (Picton & Clark, 2025) has found that unlike for reading, children’s enjoyment of listening is on the rise (from 39% in 2023 to 42% in 2024).
It means that children’s enjoyment of listening has surpassed their enjoyment of reading for the first time.
The research finds that boys in particular stand to benefit from listening to audio. While only 28% of boys enjoy reading, 43% say they enjoy listening (compared to 41% and 40% respectively for girls).
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