Children's Reading in 2026: What the New National Literacy Trust Report Tells Us
The National Literacy Trust has published its 2026 Annual Literacy Survey - the largest of its kind in the UK, covering 125,375 children and young people aged 5 to 18 across 479 schools. After several years of declining engagement, the findings offer some genuine reasons for optimism. But they also continue to highlight deep inequalities and ongoing challenges that schools, parents and policymakers need to take seriously.
Reading enjoyment is up for the first time since 2021
The headline finding is a welcome one. In 2026, 36.1% of children aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading very much or quite a lot in their free time, up from 32.7% in 2025. That's the first since 2021, and it's consistent across both boys and girls, with the largest rises among teenagers aged 14 to 18.
However, it's important to put that figure in context. Reading enjoyment peaked at 58.6% in 2016. Even with this year's recovery, fewer than 2 in 5 secondary-age children say they enjoy reading. This represents a stark reminder of how much ground has been lost over the past decade.
Reading enjoyment over time
% who enjoy reading very much or quite a lot in their free time
Ages 8–18 · 2005–2026 · Source: National Literacy Trust
Daily reading is also on the rise, but remains historically low
Alongside enjoyment, daily reading increased slightly too. 1 in 5 children aged 8 to 18 (20.3%) said they read something every day in their free time, up from 18.7% in 2025. Among younger children aged 5 to 8, 45.5% said they read daily - also a small increase on last year.
Again, the longer-term picture is sobering. In the mid-2010s, over 4 in 10 children read daily. The current figure, while moving in the right direction, is still less than half that peak.
Daily reading over time
% who read something daily in their free time
Ages 8–18 · 2005–2026 · Source: National Literacy Trust
Younger children are bucking the trend - in the wrong direction
While older children showed the strongest improvements, the news for younger readers is more concerning. Among children aged 5 to 8, reading enjoyment fell slightly from 62.6% to 61.6% - the third consecutive year of decline in this age group. This dip was driven primarily by falling enjoyment among boys, even as girls' enjoyment increased slightly.
This is worth watching closely. Early reading habits are foundational, and any sustained erosion of enjoyment at primary age has long-term implications for literacy development.
Reading enjoyment: younger children
% who enjoy reading very much or quite a lot in their free time
Ages 5–8 · 2019–2026 · Source: National Literacy Trust
Daily reading: younger children
% who read something daily in their free time
Ages 5–8 · 2019–2026 · Source: National Literacy Trust
Boys and the gender gap: a crisis that isn't going away
The gender picture deserves particular attention. While the overall rise in reading enjoyment is real, ITV News reported that the improvement is almost entirely driven by girls. Fewer than 3 in 10 boys aged 8 to 18 now say they enjoy reading - compared with more than 4 in 10 girls. The gender gap stands at around 13.5 percentage points and is unchanged from last year.
Among younger children aged 5 to 8, the gap actually widened in 2026 - boys' enjoyment fell while girls' rose, pushing the difference from 7.6 to 10.8 percentage points. Boys at primary age are heading in the opposite direction to the girls.
Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, whose Alex Rider series has sold over 20 million copies, told ITV News that there is a "war going on between books and other interests, in particular smartphones and social media." He argued that the answer isn't telling children reading is good for them - it's making books part of everyday family conversation. "If you hold up a book and say 'this is good for you', that's a turn off," he said. "If books are part of your daily conversation, if the whole family is invested in reading and literacy and books, then it will just by symbiosis find its way into children."
Horowitz also pushed back on the tendency to frame this purely as a boys-versus-girls issue, arguing that socioeconomic background is the more important and actionable variable - "you can focus your activities where they're needed."
The inequality gap is widening
One of the most significant findings in the report is the growing gap between children who receive free school meals (FSM) and those who don't. Reading enjoyment rose by 4.3 percentage points among non-FSM pupils, but only 1.1 percentage points among FSM pupils. As a result, the enjoyment gap between the two groups widened from around 2 percentage points in 2025 to over 5 in 2026.
A similar pattern was seen in daily reading. The gap between FSM and non-FSM pupils increased from 3.5 to just over 5 percentage points in a single year. If the National Year of Reading is to fulfil its stated aim of reaching those most at risk of disengagement, this inequality needs urgent attention.
Enjoyment and reading frequency are linked, but not the same thing
The report makes an important distinction: enjoying reading and reading regularly are related, but they don't fully overlap. Among children who enjoy reading, around half (49.8%) read daily. But more than 3 in 5 children who say they don't enjoy reading (62.3%) still read at least once a month.
This matters because it challenges a simple narrative. Many children read without enjoying it - and still gain something from it. Among weekly readers who don't enjoy reading, 74.1% said reading helps them learn new words or things, and 52.9% said it helps them do better at school. Reading for learning is happening even where reading for pleasure isn't.
The benefits of reading extend well beyond the classroom
The report explores how reading supports different aspects of children's lives - and the findings go far beyond academic attainment. Among children who enjoy reading and read at least weekly:
- 85.2% said reading helps them learn new words or things
- 64.4% said reading helps them relax
- 63.5% said reading helps them understand other people's views
- 55.6% said reading helps them when they feel stressed or anxious
- 38.0% said reading helps them understand themselves better
Notably, the wellbeing benefits - relaxation, emotional support, self-understanding - were much more closely tied to enjoyment than the learning benefits. Children who read regularly but don't enjoy it still recognise reading's value for learning, but far fewer say it helps them relax or feel better when they're struggling. This has implications for how we support reluctant readers: building positive associations with reading, not just exposure to it, is what unlocks its wider benefits.
Interest and encouragement are key drivers
The report is clear that engagement doesn't happen in a vacuum. Two factors stand out as particularly important: whether reading connects to children's interests, and whether they feel encouraged to read by the adults in their lives.
Nearly half of all children (48.7%) said that reading helps them explore their interests - but this rose to 72.1% among the most engaged readers. Among children who read regularly but without enjoyment, finding personally relevant reading material appears to be a meaningful bridge.
Encouragement from parents (reported by 54.8% of all children) was more common among regular readers and appears to help sustain reading even when enjoyment is low. Teacher encouragement was high across all groups (65.8%), suggesting schools are a consistent source of motivation - though this encouragement may not be translating into free-time reading habits as readily for less engaged pupils.
What this means for schools and literacy programmes
The findings have already sparked a wide public conversation. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who designated 2026 the National Year of Reading, said the results "genuinely fill me with hope" while acknowledging that "with progress slower for poorer children, we must make sure every child can find a form of reading that speaks to them."
Children's author and illustrator Dapo Adeola offered a reminder about why this matters beyond test scores: "Through stories, it is possible to escape your surroundings in a myriad of different ways, to connect with people and cultures you may otherwise never encounter in your day to day, to envision a future for yourself that your current circumstances or environment might not point towards."
That vision - of reading as a way to expand a child's sense of what's possible - is exactly what the data is pointing us towards. The children who benefit most from reading aren't just those who score higher on assessments; they're the ones who feel calmer, more empathetic, more connected to the world around them.
Taken together, the 2026 findings offer a nuanced picture. The uptick in enjoyment and daily reading is encouraging, particularly after years of decline. But the uneven nature of that recovery - with younger children, boys at primary age, and pupils from lower-income backgrounds showing slower progress - points to where sustained effort is most needed.
For those in the litereacy community the implications are clear: helping children find reading meaningful, relevant and enjoyable isn't a nice-to-have - it's the engine that drives all of the wider benefits reading can offer. Closing the gap means not just increasing exposure to reading, but actively building the enjoyment and relevance that make reading stick.
The full report is available from the National Literacy Trust. Coverage also appeared in BBC News and ITV News.
