Northern Europeans read much more than those from the south, including the Maltese.
The island's readership levels are much closer to those in Greece, Spain and Portugal than to levels in countries like Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom.
A 'Eurobarometer' survey, whose results were published by the European Commission recently, asked citizens of the European Union if they had read any books in the last 12 months.
A majority answered 'yes', with most of them (44.8 per cent) saying they had read books for reasons other than for work or study.
42.1 per cent stated they had not read a book in the last 12 months.
However, the survey found there is a higher tendency to read in most northern European countries, mainly for leisure: 71.8 per cent in Sweden, 66.2 per cent in Finland and 63.2 per cent in the UK declared reading for other reasons than work or study.
On the other hand, in Portugal 67.3 per cent said they had not read any book whatsoever in the last 12 months, with 54.3 per cent in Greece and 52.7 per cent in Spain saying the same.
The proportion of people in Malta who don't read books is similar to these southern countries - 56 per cent.
The figure emerged from a local cultural participation survey published recently by the National Statistics Office.
There are similar geographic trends for newspaper and magazine readership.
Almost half of all Europeans (46 per cent) read a newpaper every day. However, the highest rates are found in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Luxembourg, with 77.8 per cent, 77.7 per cent, 65.5 per cent and 62.7 per cent respectively.
The lowest rates of daily newspaper readership are again to be found in Greece, Spain and Portugal (20.3 per cent, 24.8 per cent and 25.1 per cent respectively).
It is also in these countries that the proportion of people saying they never read a newspaper is highest (30.5 per cent, 23.4 per cent and 25.5 per cent).
In Malta, daily readership is slightly higher than in these neighbouring Mediterranean countries, standing at 31.5 per cent, according to the NSO survey.
But the proportion of the population saying they have never read a newspaper is very similar - 23.4 per cent.
As for magazines, more than a third of European Union citizens say they read magazines more than once a week or more often, especially in Finland (61.5 per cent) and Luxembourg (51.7 per cent).
Twenty per cent of Europeans do not read magazines, with the figures highest in Portugal (36.7 per cent) and Greece (46.3 per cent).
And again, the latter figures are similar to Malta's 44 per cent who report not even bothering to pick up a magazine.