A 17-country report just released by global market analysts, GfK, shows that 30 percent of the international online population read books “every day or most days”. This is lead by China at 36 percent, closely followed by Spain and the UK at 32 percent each. However, if the segment is widened to include both daily readers and those who read “at least once a week”, the international total rises to 59 percent, with China firmly in the lead (70 percent of its population), followed by Russia (59 percent) and Spain (57 percent).
[Clip] Source: GfK
Overall, 32 percent of women report reading books every or most days, compared to 27 percent of men. This gender gap amongst the daily book readers is widest in the Netherlands (30 percent of women versus 14 percent of men) and Spain (40 percent of women versus 25 percent of men) , followed by Canada (36
percent of women versus 23 percent of men) and Germany (31 percent of women versus 19 percent of men).
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
