Brussels: Europe and the Arabs

In 2022, according to the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), 52.8% of the EU population aged 16 and over reported reading books in the past 12 months. According to figures published by the European Statistical Office in Brussels

The younger group, aged 16 to 29, read more (60.1%) compared to the age group 30 to 54 (53.5%), 55 to 64 (52.6%), and 65 and over (47.2%).
Women in the EU read books more (60.5%) than men (44.5%). The same pattern was observed when looking at the number of books read: 28.8% of women and 24.8% of men read fewer than 5 books, 14.3% of women and 9.8% of men read 5-9 books, while 17.4% of women and 9.9% of men read 10 books or more.
Highest proportion of people reading books in Luxembourg, Denmark and Estonia
Among the EU countries, Luxembourg recorded the highest proportion of people who read books in the 12 months preceding the survey (75.2%), followed by Denmark (72.1%) and Estonia (70.7%).
In contrast, in Romania, only 29.5% of people read books in the 12 months preceding the survey, 33.1% in Cyprus and 35.4% in Italy.