Mexicans read on average almost 4 books a year: Inegi

The average number of books read by the Mexican population over 18 years of age was 3.9 in the last twelve months, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in its report entitled “Module on Reading (Molec) 2022″.

This figure is the highest since 2016, when the average was 3.8. In the last seven years, the numbers have remained between 3 and 4 books read. According to Inegi, men read an average of 4.2 books read in the last year, while women read 3.7 books.

Another variation that modifies the behavior of readers is age, since 86.5% of men and 77.0% of women aged 18 to 24 were the population sector that most read the reading materials considered by Molec, such as books, magazines, newspapers, comics, websites and forums.

Likewise, reading time varies according to the readers' degree of studies, since while the reading session for the population that did not complete basic education is 32 minutes, that of the population with a completed basic education is 38 minutes; while those with a higher education degree read 48 minutes on average.

In this regard, 64.7% of those with a higher degree of education claimed to read a Molec material, while 3 out of 10 people who only completed basic (primary) education claimed to have read these materials. For their part, only 30% of those who do not have primary education read printed and digital texts.

Similarly, Inegi points out that literary texts are preferred by readers in Mexico, including novels, stories, theater, poetry and all derived genres, since they were read by 39.5% of the population. University books were the second most consulted (29.5%), followed by self-help, self-improvement or religious books (29.5%).

On the other hand, newspapers and magazines stopped being so widely read compared to previous years, while Internet pages have remained at the same levels. In 2016, the population reading newspapers was 57.6%, but by 2022 it fell to 33.9%. In addition, men tend to consult journalistic texts more than women (44.1% versus 23.5%).

The same thing happened with magazines: six years ago 51.4% of people over the age of 18 read this type of text; however, for this year it fell to 34.9%. On the other hand, websites, forums or blogs have increased in recent years. In 2016, only 45.2% of the literate population consulted these materials, while in 2022 the average is 57.6% (the same as in 2021).

The reasons why the literate Mexican population over 18 years of age read this type of material is for entertainment (44.1%), mainly, followed by questions of study and work (23.8%) and by general culture (20.7). Religious motives, on the other hand, attracted readers the least, since only 10% of this population reads them.

In contrast, the reasons why the sector of this population claimed not to read any of these materials is due to lack of time (46.7%) and motivation (28.1%), followed by preference for other activities (13.3%), health problems (9.7%) and lack of money (1.2%).

According to a study carried out by the Regional Center for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLALC), Spain is the Spanish-speaking country with the highest rate of books read per year, with approximately 10.3. In second place is Chile, with 5.4 books read, followed by Argentina (4.5) and Brazil (4.0).

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