THE Chinese Academy of Press and Publication issued the result of the ninth National Reading Survey on April 19, displaying a 0.5% of the comprehensive reading rate at 77.6% among people aged 18-70 in 2011 compared to a year earlier. Specifically, the reading rate for books has increased 1.6 percentage points and the exposure to the digital media of all forms has risen 5.8% on a year-on-year basis.

The ninth consecutive run of this nationwide reading survey was kicked off from September 2011 and was concluded in April this year. Readership of the e-books, e-newspapers and e-journals was supplemented as new entries to give statistics on people’s digital reading habit.

Only 1.2% of the Chinese people surveyed say they read a lot and 50.7% say they read a little; 21.2% of the respondents say they are satisfied with their reading volume, another 20.9% are not satisfied and the remaining 57.9% have moderate feelings towards their reading volume.

The survey has revealed an accelerated raise in access to different digital formats. In 2011 16.8% of the 18-70 aged read e-books, 8.2% of them read e-newspapers and 5.9% have access to e-journals. The rate of exposure to digital media (reading online, on mobile phone, discs, e-reader devices including PDA/MP4/MP5) goes up by 17.7% from 32.8% of the previous year to 38.6%. In 2011 Chinese citizens aged 18-70 read a per capita 1.42 e-books.

Readership of the traditional print materials still accounts for a bigger share, with 4.35 books, 100.7 issues of newspapers and 6.67 runs of journals have been read respectively on average. In 2011 54.9% of the 18-70-years-old went to the internet, 5% higher than in 2010. Approximately 11.8% of the digital readers wouldn’t buy a paperback until they have read the e-version. The survey also shows that more than 80% of the digital readers are in 18-40 years old, while some 70% + readers still attach to the paper formats, most of them are rural, middle-aged and senior people.

Survey on the reading habit shows that 75.3% of the respondents prefer to read a “paperback publication”, while the rest are more inclined to read digitally – 11.8% like reading online, 9.4% on their mobile phones, 2.5% would come to various e-book appliances and 1.0% read on printouts of the downloaded materials.

The Chinese people are now willing to pay more for reading. Citizens with exposure to digital formats can afford an average RMB3.5 for each e-book; 51.4% of the mobile phone readers accept paying for reading, with RMB20.75 per capita have been paid in 2011.(Source: China Press & Publishing Journal)