BOOK reading by Filipino adults has dropped precipitously, from 80 percent in 2017 to only 42 percent in 2023, the latest National Readership Survey shows, a development that should alarm educators and policymakers alike.
The survey, commissioned by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and conducted by the Social Weather Stations from Nov. 14 to 20, 2023, asked 2,400 adults ages 18 and older and 2,400 children ages 8 to 17 about their reading habits.
The NBDB, a government body mandated to promote the continuing development of the book publishing industry, has studied the reading habits of Filipino adults since 2003. Since then, it has commissioned five readership surveys, with 2023 being the latest.
The survey asks respondents if they, in the last 12 months, have read a non-school book, defined as a book not directly related to academic activities or school requirements and is typically read for personal enjoyment, study or information.
Among adult respondents, 42 percent were non-school book readers; among children, 47 percent. In the 2017 survey, it was 80 percent for adults; no comparative data was available for children.
Filipino was the dominant reading language for both adults (74 percent) and children (66 percent).
As a leisure activity for adults, reading (16.9 percent) is far behind watching television (48.4 percent), cooking (35.7 percent), listening to music (30.4 percent), talking to friends (30.3 percent), browsing social media (24.7 percent), gardening (20.8 percent) and surfing the internet (18.6 percent), the 2023 survey shows. It fares a bit better among children (32 percent), behind watching TV (40.6 percent) and playing sports (34.7 percent).
In any case, the decline in readership is concerning, given the many benefits of book reading. For instance, reading has been found to:
– Stimulate brain activity. Dr. Paul Wright, senior vice president and system chairman of the Neuroscience Institute, Nuvance Health, says studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, have shown that reading stimulates the brain’s neural pathways, enhancing brain activity, memory and cognitive function, and ultimately boosting a person’s creativity and capacity to learn.
– Encourage empathy. A 2013 study published in the journal Science found that literary fiction, in particular, helped readers better understand what other people were thinking and feeling and increased their capacity for empathy.
– Lower cognitive decline. Research suggests that older people who read more than those who don’t appear to have a reduced risk of cognitive decline.
– Relieve stress. A 2009 study published in the Journal of College Teaching & Learning found that 30 minutes of reading had the same ability to decrease stress as 30 minutes of yoga.
While the decline in readership is disheartening, the latest survey also points to where the country needs to go to encourage book reading. One way, of course, is to improve access to books.
More than half of the adults (59 percent) and children (60 percent) surveyed chose their books because of their availability. Other factors were the book’s affordability (20 percent for adults, 19 percent for children), recommendations from others (12 percent in both age groups) and social media platforms (12 percent for adults, 10 percent for children).
Among adults, the preferred way to access books is to borrow them from someone (46.1 percent), followed by purchasing them (36.7 percent). Only 8.5 percent said they preferred to borrow books from a library. Children, on the other hand, preferred to buy their books (43.6 percent) or borrow from someone (35.9 percent). Only 14.7 percent preferred to borrow books from a library.
These preferences, however, may be shaped by the need for more and better public libraries than anything else. Both adults (82 percent) and children (88 percent) said they were not aware of any public library in their community. Of those aware, only 51 percent of adults and 60 percent of children ever visited the library.
Another survey finding that may be salient to policymakers who want to arrest the decline in readership is that 74 percent of adults and 75 percent of children preferred reading printed books over other materials. Only about 14 percent of adults and 13 percent of children preferred to read books in digital formats.
This is not necessarily a disadvantage, though, even in a digital world. In a meta-analysis comparing print versus digital reading (Delgado et al., 2018), researchers analyzed data from 54 studies involving over 170,000 participants conducted between 2000 and 2017. The results showed that screen reading was consistently associated with lower reading comprehension scores.
The 2023 National Readership Survey is chockfull of data that policymakers can use to encourage Filipinos to read more, says NBDB Chairman Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd. The first step is to turn the page.