Regular readers only in Valencian stagnate at 3% but occasional readers rise to 44%
VALENCIA, 28 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
69 percent of Valencians declare themselves book readers, 14 percentage points more than a decade ago, according to a study by the Fundació FULL, which reflects that this habit is consolidated in the Valencian Community above the Spanish average. In general, the reading population in the autonomous region reaches 96.3%, especially the press (72.8%), but also books (69%). The study also shows that Valencian readers are increasing with the first generation literate in this language.
In relation to the last decade, trends indicate that comics and magazines fall in the Valencian Community, newspapers remain stable at around 72% and the percentage of readers of web pages and social networks also rises, which are situated in 59% and 51.2% respectively. The sector by age that reads the most is between 14 and 34 years old, 98.8%.
The FULL Foundation presented this Thursday the study ‘Reading and Purchase Habits of Books to the Valencian Community 2020’, which offers a comparative perspective of the last ten years in the Valencian Community.
The presentation, in the framework of Plaça del Llibre in Gandia, was attended by the president of FULL, Jesús Figuerola, along with the entity’s project director, Teresa Val, who read a letter from the professor of Sociology and former vice-rector of Culture of the University of Valencia, Antonio Ariño, who could not attend.
From 1999 to 2011 these studies were carried out annually at the request of the General Directorate of the Book of the Generalitat Valenciana. The FULL Foundation took them up again in 2018, expanding the sample of respondents from fifty to more than a thousand. Specifically, in 2020 interviews were conducted with 1,224 people, in a population aged 10 years or more. The FULL project manager announced that in the coming months the objective is to carry out more detailed sector studies.
READING IN VALENCIAN
According to Ariño, regular readers in Valencian are stagnant at 3%, while there has been an increase in occasional readers to 44%. Figuerola considers that this 3% figure should be downplayed because they assume people who only read in Valencian and underlines the fact that little by little the number of people who read in this language, in Spanish and in others is increasing.
“The average is around 40%”, but for example, in the Gandia-Alcoi area the reading in Valencian is more consolidated and stands at 20 points above the autonomy average, they point out from FULL. In general, 80% of those surveyed affirm that they read to their children under six years of age and, of this figure, 60% do so also in Valencian.
DIGITALIZATION
Antonio Ariño also pointed to the digitization of content. Readers who, at least, read a part in digital format grow very quickly, so that if in 2018 they were 74%, in 2020 they are already 78%.
“We can speak of a remarkable progression of the population that reads in digital format,” said Ariño. Thus, in general terms, it has gone from 45% (2010) to 78% (2020) in ten years. In the specific case of reading books, it has gone from 6% to 30% in a decade.
The digital format is precisely one of the few indexes in which the Valencian average is below the Spanish one, in all kinds of media. In books it represents 78% compared to 82% of the Spanish average and in networks it is 51% compared to 58%.
According to Ariño, “it could be said that there is a certain delay in the configuration of the digital society in the Valencian Community”, which also explains the “strangeness” of the data because the survey of equipment and use of technologies in the home shows similar levels .
SALE IN LIBRARIES
Regarding the obtaining of books, three situations are contemplated: purchase / gift, visit to libraries and loans and downloads on the Internet. 63% claim to have bought a book throughout the year; 31% affirm to have been a member of libraries in 2020, 57% would acquire free reading on the net and 12% affirm that they “always pay for it”.
The main channel for buying books continues to be traditional bookstores, while in purchases made over the internet, Amazon stands out above the rest of the platforms. The most notable increase in book purchases in 2020 has been online (from 10% in 2018 to 16.5% in 2020).
Figuerola has highlighted the “essential institutional support” for the sector: “Part of the actions that the Valencian Plan for the Promotion of Books and Reading 2017-2021 have promoted are responsible for this increase in the reading index”.
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