The British are Reading More!

Surprise! Surprise! The British are actually reading more these days than they did 25 years ago. The BBC reports that :

A team at the University of Manchester has found that, while Britons spent just three minutes a day on average reading a book in 1975, by 2000 this rose to seven minutes.

And when magazines and newspapers were taken into account, Britons were reading five minutes more every day in 2000, compared to their 1970s counterparts. Women in particular increased their page-turning time.

This phenomena is explained by a member of the research team, Dr Dale Southerton, as stemming from the fact that :

... people now have more time for books. And the increase in reading can be explained by the changes in how people organise their lives and better access to education, he says.

The modern lifestyle helps. Many readers use commuting time to read, and a fragmented day gives small pockets of time to catch up on a few chapters.

Greater access to higher education has also influenced reading habits :

... more of us are better educated now and are likely to enjoy reading.