Readership among Filipinos on steady decline – survey

Adult Filipinos are reading less than ever, according to the 2023 National Readership Survey (NRS), a poll commissioned by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and carried out by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Respondents who say they read for leisure have gone down to 42 percent, a 12-point decline from the 2012 results where 54 percent engaged in the activity, according to Kevin Ansel Dy, officer in charge of the NBDB Policy and Industry Research Division.

At a media forum announcing the results on Thursday, Dy said those who showed little inclination to engage in leisure reading cited two main reasons: they enjoyed “other leisurely activities more interesting to them” and “it was difficult [for them] to find time to read.”

Other key findings:

• For book readers, the biggest consideration for making a purchase was availability (59 percent).

• As to reading materials, the majority still preferred printed books (74 percent), followed by those choosing printed newspapers (21), printed magazines (17), e-books and printed picture books (both 14), online fiction, such as Wattpad (10), and printed comic books (9). The respondents were allowed to give three choices.

• Filipino was the most consistent choice in terms of preferred language.

• The top book genre is the Bible (64 percent), a majority pick that dwarfs the others: picture and children’s books (30), health, wellness, family and herbal medicine (28), short stories for children (27), romance (25), food, cooking, culinary arts and history (23), graphic novels or comics as well as leisure, hobbies and amusement (both at 21 percent), short stories and novels for young adults (20), followed by 13 other unspecified genres. The respondents were also allowed three choices.

• The readers’ favorite Filipino authors are Dr. Jose Rizal (3.6 percent), Miriam Defensor Santiago (2.2), Gilda Olvidado (1.3), Jonaxx (1.2), Martha Cecilia and Maxine Gigi (both at 0.8 percent), Francisco Balagtas and Helen Meriz (both at 0.7), Chinkee Tan (0.6), Bob Ong (0.5), Dr. Willie Ong (0.2), and other authors at 13.4 percent.

• On average, the respondents devoted less than an hour a day to reading.

Positive activity

Still, Dy noted, the majority of Filipino adults continued to consider reading a positive activity (89 percent) and shared the view that “the quality of the writing of most books made in the Philippines is high” (73 percent).

The NBDB described the NRS as “the most comprehensive examination of Filipino adults’ reading habits and behaviors.”

The first NRS was conducted in 2003 and has since been done four more times.

Expanded coverage

The 2003, 2008, 2012, and 2023 surveys involved the SWS, while the 2017 survey was carried out by the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI) and used a different methodology.

The survey focused on the consumption of “nonschool books (NSB)” for a better assessment of reading habits outside an academic setting. Among its objectives was to find out whether the respondents had read an NSB in the last 12 months.

Compared to the earlier polls, the 2023 edition had the most number of respondents at 2,400 or double the previous population, according to Lyka Manglal-Lan, the project lead.

It was conducted for six months from August 2023 to February this year, and included the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for the first time, Manglal-Lan added.

Of the adults polled, most were in the 35-44 age group (29 percent); followed by the 45-54 bracket (21); 25-34 (20); 18-24 and 54-64 (both 11); and 65 and above (8).

Fifty-four percent of the respondents were employed, and 46 percent were unemployed.

The majority were junior high school graduates (33.6 percent), followed by junior high undergraduates (14.2), elementary graduates (13.2), college undergraduates (10.5 percent), elementary undergraduates (9.4), college graduates (8.4), vocational graduates (3.6), senior high graduates (3.1), without formal education (1.2), vocational level (0.8), and postgraduate level (0.3).

‘Steady decline’

Since the 2017 survey was conducted by PSRTI (unlike the rest that was done by SWS), it had a different methodology and set of questions used.

This can help explain the “strange spike” in that survey where Philippine adult readership was measured at 80 percent, Dy said.

The NBDB added that “the [2017] results were an outlier and a clear departure from the trends observed in the initial iterations of the NRS.”

If the 2017 survey is taken out of the series, the rest of the polls would show “a steady decline” in adult readership: 61 percent in 2007, 54 percent in 2012, and 42 percent in 2023, Dy said.

“Each survey organization has its own methodology … We were able to ask more questions,” SWS president Linda Luz Guerrero said.

Call to action

NBDB executive director Charisse Aquino-Tugade said the board had two flagship projects hoping to improve the numbers.

One is the Book Nook project which seeks to create “a network of reading and storytelling centers in remote and indigenous areas across the country,” and the other is the Philippine Book Festival to be held in April.

“If the survey reveals low levels of readership or a lack of motivation among the youth to read more, it is our responsibility to reframe these findings into a call to action,” NBDB chair Dante Ang II said during the March 21 forum.

“Rather than dwelling on them as less than desirable behaviors, we have to be able to look at the problem from a different angle and realize that what is actually lacking are mechanisms that should encourage Filipinos to read [and] conditions that create environments conducive to reading,” Ang added.

He cited the lack of access to books, the dearth of libraries, and the high prices of reading materials among the main hurdles.

READ: Why we’re disinterested in reading