China’s latest reading survey shows rising digital reading rates while printed books remain widely preferred, reflecting a dual-track reading culture in 2025.
China’s adult reading participation rose slightly in 2025, while digital reading continued to expand its dominance in daily media consumption, according to the latest national reading survey released at the 5th National Reading Conference, CNS reported.
The comprehensive reading rate among Chinese adults reached 82.3%, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. The average number of books read per person also increased to 8.39, including 4.81 printed books and 3.58 e-books.
However, gains remained modest. The printed book reading rate rose slightly to 60%, while newspaper and magazine reading continued to decline. Adults read an average of 11.59 newspaper issues and 1.57 magazine issues per year.
Digital Reading Expands as Mobile Phones Dominate Usage
At the same time, digital reading continued to strengthen its position. The digital reading access rate reached 80.8%, up 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
Mobile phones remained the primary reading device, with a usage rate of 79%. In addition, other formats continued to grow in popularity. Audiobook listening reached 38.7%, while video-based “book explanation” content rose to 6.3%.
Time-use data further highlights this shift. Chinese adults spent an average of 109.54 minutes per day on mobile phones, compared with 24.68 minutes on printed books.
Despite this gap, printed books retained a strong base of preference. Nearly 45.9% of respondents said they prefer reading printed books, compared with 37.6% for mobile reading, with smaller shares for audiobooks and e-readers.
Reading Patterns Diverge Across Age Groups
Reading habits varied significantly across age groups.
Among children and adolescents aged 0 to 17, the reading rate reached 86.7%, with an average of 11.72 books read per year. Children aged 9 to 13 showed stronger interest in comics and science content, while teenagers aged 14 to 17 preferred online fiction and academic materials. About half of the surveyed adolescents also reported that artificial intelligence tools helped improve personalised content recommendations.
Older adults also showed high engagement. In a separate survey presented at the Silver-Age Reading Forum, people aged 60 and above ranked first among all age groups in leisure-time reading and learning activities.
Overall, 32.23% of respondents across all age groups reported spending leisure time on reading and learning activities, with older adults leading for the third consecutive year.
The survey also found a relatively small urban–rural gap. In urban areas, 34.31% of older adults reported regular reading or study activities, compared with 32.79% in rural areas.
In addition, 23.12% of older respondents said they planned to increase spending on education and training, exceeding planned spending on medical services.
The report also noted that 39.25% of older adults identified information access as the main benefit of artificial intelligence tools, higher than the overall average across age groups.
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