According to what was recently reported in a report published by ISTAT, the number of book readers continues to fall in our country. After a steady growth 10 duration from the year 2000 in which the percentage of readers was of 38,6%, to 2010 when we reached the maximum result with the 46,8%, the data referring to the percentage of readers in our country decreases inexorably in year year until you reach the same percentages for 2016 registered in the 2001. A jump back of 15 years therefore, which speaks volumes about the state of regression of our Italy, in the field of reading, more generally in that of culture and unfortunately in many other areas for which every new report drawn up by the instat on duty It proves to be merciless towards our country and prevents us from continuing to keep our heads in the sand, showing us instead naked in front of a mirror that shows a decadence that has long since ceased to be even worrying, a decadent overt and whose results do not they risk becoming very serious simply because they are already very serious. Probably for a number of reasons, it would not be fair to use Norway as a comparison point where the percentage of readers exceeds 90%, but it must reflect the data recorded by the nearest, not only geographically Spain, where the percentage of readers has exceeded the 60%, data on which to reflect very carefully.
There are about 23 million Italians who claim to have read at least one book, for reasons not strictly academic or professional, during the last year. Considering the population older than 6 years, we have moved from 42% registered in 2015, to 40,5% in 2016. The segment of the population that reads most is very young, that is to say the one that goes from 11 to 14 years.
According to the editors interviewed for the survey, among the factors contributing to the poor propensity to read in Italy there is a lack of adequate scholastic policies, but it is probably the family the main place where the love of reading develops. The data in fact show that the attitude to reading children and young people is encouraged by the presence of parents who have the habit of reading books. In the Italian band that reads more, that is to say the one already mentioned among the 11 and 14 years for example, reads the 72,3% of who has mother and father readers and only the 33,1% of those who have both parents readers.
The report also highlights how the difference at the territorial level is still strong and how the reading is more widespread in the regions of the North-East and North-West, where the percentage of the population declaring to have read at least one book exceeds 48% , while in the south the share of readers falls to 27,5%. The islands in which a very contrasting figure has emerged deserve separate mention. Sicily stands at a modest 25,8%, while Sardinia records an 45,7% higher than the national average.
The central municipalities of the metropolitan areas were the ones with the highest rate of "readers". In fact, in these large centers it appears that just under half of the inhabitants claim to be readers, more precisely 48,6%, while the share falls to 35,6% in municipalities with less than 2 inhabitants. In detail, it can be seen that the regions with the most readers are Friuli-Venezia Giulia (54,3%) and Valle d'Aosta (51,9%) preceding Lombardy (48,9%), Veneto (48,7 %) and Piedmont (48,1%). The figure drops steadily and significantly as it proceeds towards southern Italy until it reaches the four regions where less than 30% of respondents said they read at least one book a year: Puglia (27,2%), Campania (26,3 %), Sicily (25,8%) and Calabria (25,1%).
Going back to what was previously mentioned and referring to Italian families, in 2016 about one in ten declared that they have no book at home, a figure which has been constant for almost twenty years. Even in cases where there is a home library, the number of books available is very limited: 28,2% of families own no more than 25 books and 63,2% have a library with a maximum of 100 titles. Of the people who claim to have over 400 books at home, about one in five (21,4%) did not read even one and an equivalent share (19,8%) said they read no more than three books at all. 'year (defined as' weak readers'); in 36,0% of cases they are instead 'strong readers' (those who read more than 12 books a year). The link between the habit of reading and other forms of cultural participation seems more evident. By dividing the population between readers and non-readers, it emerges that 68,9% of the former went to the cinema compared to 41,7% of non-readers; 34,7% of readers saw at least one play in the year compared to 10,2% of those who do not read, as well as the attendance of museums or exhibitions which is practiced by 54,1% of the first group compared to 15,8 , XNUMX% of the second.
The reading also varies according to the evaluation of the economic resources available to the family. The economic condition of families of 'non-readers' is relatively worse than those of readers: in 2016, 45% of 'non-readers' considered the resources available to their family to be 'scarce or insufficient' compared to 30,9% of readers while 54,1% of those who do not read and 68,5% of those who read regularly consider them excellent or adequate. If on the whole, in Italy, the practice of reading is still very modest and books are completely absent in many homes, in recent years the consumption of digital publishing products is slowly spreading. In 2016, approximately 4,2 million people read e-books (7,3% of the population over 6 years of age). If we also add those who have downloaded books online, the number rises to 6,3 million or 11,1% of the population over 6 years of age, a marked increase compared to 8,2% in 2015. One confirms that between the reading of paper volumes and that of e-books there seems to be a direct relationship, however, is given by the percentage of people who in the last 3 months have read books online or e-books, which increases in proportion to the number of books present in home, up to the maximum value (22,1%) among people who already have a home library of over 400 volumes.
Similarly, once again looking at people aged six years and over, 4% of 'non-readers' of paper books and 21,6% of readers of printed titles have downloaded or read online books or e-books. ; among the latter, the percentages of online use increase with the increase in the number of books read over the last 12 months, going from 15,0% of those who have read 1 to 3 books to 33,7% of those who have read 12 or more books. The positive relationship between reading e-books or using online books and reading paper books confirms the hypothesis that the digital format is not, in general, an explicit alternative to the paper one, at least in the habit of reading. Reading and downloading of online books and e-books are popular activities especially among young people: in particular they concern 21,7% of young people between 15 and 17 years, 24,8% of those between 18 and 19 and 22,9% of 24-year-olds.
GB
