Children read almost 25% more books last year, UK and Ireland study finds

The research showed that children read more than 27m books in the 2021-22 academic year. Photograph: Mike Booth/Alamy

The number of books read by children increased by almost a quarter last year, according to a report, as BookTok and other social media trends stimulated interest in reading for young people.

The 2023 What Kids Are Reading report, which surveyed children in the UK and Ireland, found that pupils read 27,265,657 books in the 2021-2022 academic year, 24% more than the 2020-2021 academic year.