Half of population in Latvia is reading books

Results of a population survey conducted by the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia show that a half (50.3 %) of the population of Latvia aged 16 and over were reading books (including e-books or audio books) in 2022. The greatest proportion of people reading books was recorded among women, young people aged 16–24, and people having higher education.

In 2022, 61.6 % of women and just 36.3 % of men had read any books during the last 12 months. Among men, 38.1 % did not read because of the lack of interest and 19.5 % due to the lack of time (16.4 % and 13.5 % among women, respectively). Only 0.2 % of men and 0.6 % of women admitted that do not read books because cannot afford it.

Reading books and main reasons for not reading books during last 12 months by sex, 2022

(per cent of population aged 16 and over)

	Total	Males	Females
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
Had read any books	50.3	36.3	61.6
Main reason for not reading books
lack of interest	25.9	38.1	16.4
lack of time	16.1	19.5	13.5
lack of access	0.8	0.8	0.8
cannot afford it	0.4	0.2	0.6
other reason	6.3	5.3	7.2

Refer to the OSP database: MOD15_06

Age breakdown of the data shows that reading books is more popular among young people aged 16–24. In 2022, 58.2 % of youngsters had read any books while in other age groups the indicator varied around 50 %.

Lack of time and lack of interest were the two main reasons for not reading books last year. Lack of interest was mentioned by 25.9 % and lack of time by 16.1 %. Moreover, population aged 25–49, compared to people in other age groups, mentioned that do not read because of the lack of time the most often (23 %). The proportion of those who did not read because of the lack of interest was similar in all age groups and varied between 25 and 27.1 %.

Reading books and main reasons for not reading books during last 12 months by age group, 2022

(per cent of population aged 16 and over)

	16–25 years	25–49 years	50–64 years	65+ years
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Had read any books	58.2	48.8	50.0	50.4
Main reason for not reading books
lack of interest	27.1	25.9	26.6	25.0
lack of time	12.4	23.0	17.8	5.6
lack of access	0.1	0.3	0.9	1.8
cannot afford it	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.9
other reason	2.0	2.0	4.4	16.4

Refer to the OSP database: MOD15_06

Results of the survey show that people with higher education read significantly more than people with secondary or basic education (70.4 %, 42.6 % and 33.7 %, respectively).

Reading books and main reasons for not reading books during last 12 months by educational attainment, 2022

(per cent of population aged 16 and over)

	Basic education or lower	Secondary education	Higher education
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
Had read any books	33.7	42.6	70.4
Main reason for not reading books
lack of interest	41.6	30.9	11.0
lack of time	11.8	18.5	14.5
lack of access	1.6	0.9	0.3
cannot afford it	0.7	0.5	0.2
other reason	10.7	6.7	3.7

Refer to the OSP database: MOD15_06

The results of the survey show that more books are read by the wealthiest part of the population. Among the richest population (belonging to the fifth quintile group¹), 64.7 % had read any books during the last 12 months while among the poorest population (belonging to the first quintile group) those were 40.9 %, moreover one in three (33.3 %) people living in the poorest households said they were not interested in reading books.

Reading books and main reasons for not reading books during last 12 months by quintile group, 2022

(per cent of population aged 16 and over)

	First (poorest households)	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth (richest households)
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Had read any books	40.9	44.0	51.9	50.4	64.7
Main reason for not reading books
lack of interest	33.3	27.4	24.4	27.4	17.1
lack of time	15.4	16.4	16.6	17.2	14.8
lack of access	1.9	1.2	0.6	0.3	0.1
cannot afford it	1.1	0.7	0.2	0.1	0.1
other reason	7.5	10.4	6.2	4.6	3.2

Refer to the OSP database: MOD15_06

23 April was celebrated as World Book and Copyright Day. More statistics for reading books is available in the official statistics portal.

Information about reading books was acquired in the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. The survey covered 10.3 thousand respondents aged 16 and over living in 5.8 thousand households. The data were collected by surveying people aged at least 16 at the end of 2021.

Methodological explanations

¹ Quintile group – one fifth (20%) of the number of surveyed households grouped in increasing sequence according to the disposable income per one household member.

Media requests:
Communication Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 27880666

More information on data:
Social Statistics Data Compilation and Analysis Section
Viktors Veretjanovs
E-mail: Viktors.Veretjanovs@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366609