Book reading frequency of teenagers in Germany 2019, by age group

Published by Evgenia Koptyug, May 22, 2020

German teenage book reading frequency depends on age groups. 31 percent of 12- to 13-year-olds read daily or several times a week, according to a recent survey. It seems that daily page-turning increased among older teenagers.

Nose stuck in a book?

Among the population (aged 14 and older), almost 12 million read books several times a week during their free time, compared to 18.6 million people who do so less than once a month. Generally, the number of people reading books daily or several times a week was dropping year after year. A growing number of people state that they do not buy books, though those who do mainly buy paperbacks. This may be attributed to digitalization hitting the book industry and the understandable appeal of e-readers to an increasingly mobile nation.

Next chapter

The German book market is forecast to experience stable revenue development in the coming years, with the fiction segment generating the most, in comparison to textbooks and nonfiction. With changing consumption habits among readers and the rise of mobile devices, the story of the book as such will be an interesting one to follow.

How often do you read a book?

	12-13 years	14-15 years	16-17 years	18-19 years
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Release date

April 2020

More information

Region

Germany

Survey time period

May 28 to August 17, 2019

Number of respondents

1,200 teenagers

Age group

12-19 years

Special properties

Only printed books

Method of interview

Telephone interview

Supplementary notes

JIM is a series of surveys published by the Medienpädagogische Forschungsbund Südwest, which is supported by the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg (LFK) and the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinlandpfalz (LMK). The surveys are developed in cooperation with SWR Medienforschung, the Zeitungs Marketing Gesellschaft (ZMG), the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, the Landeszentralen für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg und Rheinland-Pfalz and the Stiftung Lesen.

The source does not provide information on the original wording used during the survey. Thus, the wording chosen for this statistic may differ slightly from the one in the survey. Numbers refer to printed books only.