Chinese people read more books in 2020

BEIJING — Chinese adults and children read more books, both paper and digital, in 2020 compared with 2019, according to a national survey on reading released on April 23.

The per capita reading volume of paper books was 4.70 and that for digital books was 3.29 in 2020, the survey found.

Meanwhile, online reading and reading on mobile phones have become the main ways of digital reading among adult citizens, the survey noted.

The number of books read by juveniles per capita stood at 10.71 in 2020, an increase of 0.35 from 2019, according to the survey.

Urban residents in China read 5.54 paper books in 2020, up from 5.48 in 2019, and rural residents read 3.75 paper books, up from 3.73 in 2019, the survey showed.

A total of 43.4 percent of the surveyed adults said they preferred to read paper books in 2020, up 6.7 percentage points from 2019.

The Chinese Academy of Press and Publication has been conducting the national survey on reading since 1999. This year, samples were collected from 167 cities through online and telephone surveys.