Literature Survey Suggests 75% of Brits are Readers

The Royal Society of Literature has used research company Ipsos MORI to collate information, setting out to find out how much British residents know about literature. The study is complete and the findings have been published and they make for interesting reading.

Apparently, Brits think of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and J.K. Rowling when they think of great English writers, but worryingly 20% of people surveyed couldn’t name a writer of literature at all.

Looking through the study piece by piece we see that 75% of UK adults have read something in the last 6 months, which they consider to be literature, that at least is a heartening statistic! And while the remaining 25% is worrying, 56% of those people who did not read, would like to read in the future so even where reading literature isn’t happening, there is a slight interest and desire.

When talking about the benefits of reading literature, nearly nine in ten people believed that literature is an important part of everyone’s education. Of those polled, seven out of ten believed that literature is a comfort in times of stress, and eight in every ten people understood that literature improved empathy and helped us understand the views of others.

When asked to name an author of literature, most people said Shakespeare with Charles Dickens in second place. However, third place was the first spot taken by a living author. Four Hundred authors were named for this section and of those, women and minorities were woefully under-represented. Half of the writers mentioned are still alive, almost 70% are novelists, showing fiction still rules, but just 31% are female, and just 7% are people of colour.

That gender gap is also reflected in those reading, as of those polled, readers of literature are more likely to be white, female, and come from a higher socio-economic group too.

It makes for interesting reading and the study seems to reflect things that other studies have also found. What is heartening is that such a high percentage of Brits read regularly and they consider what they are reading to be quality literature. You can see the full findings here in pdf form.