Conclusions of survey on reading habits

Reading is very widespread in Malta, but this study shows that the habit is not evenly spread among the population, even though as many as 62.3% say that they enjoy the habit, while the remaining 37.7%% said that they do not. In the total population...

The highest percentages of readers are to be found in the second youngest age group (26-35: 66%) followed by the youngest (16-25: 64.6%). As expected, the Maltese who enjoy reading most belong to the AB (85.2%) and C1 (73.7%) categories; much lower percentages were registered among readers who hail from the two lowest socio-economic categories (C2: 52.7%; DE: 47%).

What do the Maltese read? This study reveals that newspapers are the most popular. These are followed, at lower levels by magazines in English (35.8%) and books in English (30.5%). Another 18.2% declared they enjoyed reading magazines in Maltese while 13.4% enjoy reading books in Maltese. A mere 0.5% mentioned that they read books in other languages.

Newspapers are more popular among males (76.7%, vs. females: 57.7%). Conversely, females outnumber males among those who enjoy reading books in Maltese by almost four to one (20.6% vs. 5.6%). Furthermore, many more females than males claimed to enjoy reading magazines in English (42.3% vs. 28.9%), magazines in Maltese (42.3% vs. 28.9%).

However, the incidence of reading books in English is virtually the same for males and females, at 30% and 30.9% respectively.

Newspaper readership is also highest among the AB (78.3%), C2 (75.5%) and C1 (63.1%) socio-economic categories and lowest among the DE (54.8%).

The incidence of those who enjoy reading newspapers is highest among readers of Malta Today but care is necessary here since absolute numbers reading that particular newspaper are relatively small. Otherwise those who declared they prefer to read newspapers most read The Independent on Sunday (95.2%), KullHadd (92.3%), Il-Mument (83.3%) and The Sunday Times (73.8%).

Furthermore, the incidence of those who enjoy reading books in English is highest among readers of Malta Today (100%) followed by readers of Il-Mument (50%) and The Sunday Times (45.2%). Lower percentages are registered by readers of The Independent on Sunday (33.3%) and KullHadd (30.8%).

On the other hand, of the 35.8% who claimed to enjoy reading magazines in English, the incidence is highest among readers of The Sunday Times (48.8%), followed by The Independent on Sunday (47.6%) and Il-Mument (41.7%). The lowest percentages were registered by KullHadd at 23.1% and Malta Today (0%).

Love stories most popular

Those who had stated that they enjoy reading books in English and Maltese were in turn asked what types of books they enjoy reading. Some said that they enjoy reading in one language while others love to read books in both Maltese and English.

In response to this question a whole range of different types of books was given. Nevertheless, love stories received the highest mention (31.9%), closely followed by fiction/novels (30.6%), history/folklore (22.2%), biographies (13.9%), detective stories (8.3%), science/technical books and thrillers, each at 6.9%.

Other types of books mentioned were academic books (5.6%), books on health, the arts, travel/geography, religion and politics.

Females (52.4%) enjoy reading love stories much more than males (3.3%). This is also the case with regard to thrillers (9.5% vs. 3.3%), fiction/novels (31% vs. 30%), academic books (7.1% vs. 3.3%) and books on the arts (4.8% vs. 3.3%). Conversely, male readership is higher than female as regards history/folklore (33.3% vs. 14.3%), biographies (16.7% vs. 11.9%), religious books (6.7% vs. 2.4%) and health (6.7% vs. 2.4%). No female claimed to enjoy reading books on politics (1.4% for males, 0% for females).

Also, there are more readers of love stories among the DE and AB socio-economic groups (54.5% and 37.5% respectively) as compared to C1 and C2 (27% and 12.5%) respectively.

Magazines

Those who had stated that they enjoy reading magazines were in turn asked what types of magazines they enjoy reading. The three most popular types are gossip/information (54.7%), followed by current affairs (37.2%) and home improvements (26.7%). Other types of magazines mentioned were computer (7%), motoring (9.3%), adult magazines (7%), religious (5.8%), travel and animal magazines each at 2.3%, and those related to craft (1.2%); 5.8% did not answer the question.

Many more females read certain types of magazines than males, such as gossip/information (71.1% vs. 27.3%), home improvements (43.4% vs. 0%), craft (1.9% vs. 0%), adult (3.8% vs. 0%), health and beauty (18.9% vs. 0%).

Conversely, more males read other magazine types than females: current affairs (42.4% vs. 34%), computer (15.2% vs. 1.9%) and motoring (24.2% vs. 0%).

All those who had said that they enjoy reading were in turn asked whether they enjoyed reading in other languages besides Maltese and English. As many as 88.2% stated that they do not read in a third language. Only 11.8% said they read in Italian, another 1.1% read books in French and 0.5% in German. This shows that Italian stands out as the third language in Malta, although the level of use is relatively low.

Quite noteworthy is that of the Maltese who read books in Italian, more are to be found in the highest socio-economic category (AB: 17.4%) than in the lower socio-economic categories (C1: 13.1%; C2: 12.2% and DE: 3.2%).

Books

This study next focused on the extent to which the Maltese use lending libraries. Only 17.3% said they borrow books from libraries. Of these, there are more females (18.4%) than males (16.2%); younger than older (16-25: 33.3% vs. 51-65: 8.7%) and among the two highest socio-economic categories (AB: 29.6% and C1: 28.1% vs. DE: 7.6% and C2: 7.5%).

Asked how many books they read on average each year, 40.7% said they do not read books at all, while 33% said that they read between one and five a year. The number of those who read more than five books a year goes down significantly, with 7% stating that they read between six and ten books each year, 7.3% read seven-20 books, 4.3% read 21-30 books, 4% read 31-40 books, while 2.3% and 1.3% said that they read 41-50 books and more than 50 books per year respectively.

Those who said that they read up to five books a year are mostly males (35.8%), the elderly (41.7%), those who belong to the DE socio-economic category and readers of KullHadd/It-Torca (39.1%).

When also asked whether they have a bookcase with books at home, 29.7% aid they did, while 69.7% declared they do not have a bookcase at home. A mere 0.7% did not answer. Effectively, 29.7% of all Maltese who said they have a bookcase at home, the incidence is higher among males (34.5%) than females (25%); among those in the 36-50 age group (36.5% vs. 65+: 22.9%). The incidence of owning a bookcase is also highest among those belonging to the AB (59.3%) socio-economic category and lowest among those in the DE (15.2%).

Independent academic research shows that reading to children consolidates the parent-child bond and encourages children to love reading books. For this reason, all those taking part in this study were asked whether, when they were young, anyone in the family used to read books to them. This study reveals that as many as 65.7% declared that no one read to them when they were children. Of the remaining 34.3%, 4% said they were read to daily, 15.3% were read to often, while 15% stated that they were 'rarely' read to. The incidence of those who were read to daily is highest among the AB (18.5%) socio-economic category and lowest among the C2 (1.1%) and DE (1.5%).

Those who had stated that they had been read to when they were young were in turn asked who used to read to them. The data reveal that 77.7% of them used to be read to by their mother, another 24.3% by their father, yet another 8.7% by their siblings, and 3.9% by their grandparents. The remaining 1% said that 'other' individuals used to read to then.

As a follow-up to the question on who used to read to them, the participants were also asked about the language they were read to. 72.8% of the respondents declared that they were read to in Maltese, while 27.2% used to be read to in English.

Newspapers

Respondents were then asked whether Malta has quality newspapers, and on what they liked and did not like to find in newspapers. One third (33.3%) believe that Malta does not have any quality newspaper. The remaining 77% think the opposite. Of these, as many as 59.3% of the respondents consider The Times/The Sunday Times to fall in this category. Another 10% think that The Independent/The Independent on Sunday (10.0%) also qualifies. In this respect too, KullHadd/It-Torca was mentioned by 7.7%, while 1.7% cited In-Nazzjon/Il-Mument and yet another 0.7% Malta Today. Among the respondents who consider The Times/Sunday Times as a quality newspaper, there are more females (60.5%) than males (58.1%), while more males (10.8%) than females (9.2%) think that The Independent/The Independent on Sunday qualifies as a quality paper.

All participants, whether or not they think that Malta has quality newspapers, were then asked to list the good features they look for in such a newspaper and the features they do not like. At the top of the list of the unprompted replies given, as many as 60.3% look for 'balance'. This is closely followed by the 'latest news' (52.0%) and by 'correct information' (31.3%). Lower percentages were registered in respect of other qualities such as 'adverts' (15.3%), 'variety' (4.7%), 'sports' (3.3%) and 'truth' (1.0%). Since more than one quality could be given the percentages add up to more than 100%.

The aspect which annoyed newspaper readers most was 'partisanship' (57.3%) followed by 'stale news' (29.0%), 'too many adverts' (19.3%), 'bad use of language' (3.7%), 'non-researched articles' (1.7%) and 'repetition' (1.3%).

Among those who listed 'partisanship', the incidence was highest among females (57.9%; males: 56.8%); among those in the second youngest age group (26-35: 62.0%); among the DE (59.1%) socio-economic category and among readers of both The Sunday Times and The Independent on Sunday, each at 55.9%. Interestingly 'too many adverts' was more frequently mentioned by males (21.6%) than by females (17.1%). Other features not liked by readers are: 'bad use of language' (3.7%); 'non-researched articles' (1.7%); and 'repetition' (1.3%).

Respondents were also asked what the Maltese think of the effect of the Internet on reading. As many as 11.7% felt that they did not have enough evidence on which to base their point of view. But 17.7% feel that the Internet did not have any effect on reading, either way. This view is not shared by the rest, and in fact as many as 45% of all Maltese are of the opinion that the Internet has had a negative effect on reading, while the remaining 25.7% believe that its influence on reading was actually positive.

Views among those who believed that the Internet had negatively affected reading were evenly divided across gender, but they were very strongly present among members of the AB socio-economic group, of whom 51.9% thought so. In contrast, more members of other socio-economic groups than those in the AB group thought that reading had increased since the advent of the Internet, with the highest levels in favour of this view being registered by members of the C2 and DE groups at 25.8%.

Socio-economic groups:

AB - professional, managerial, administrative;
C1 - higher clerical, clerical, supervisor, skilled craftsmen and technicians, owner/manager of small business;
C2 - skilled manual workers and foremen;
DE - semi-skilled, unskilled, labourers, casual workers and persons whose income is provided by the State.