National Literacy Trust: Daily Readers Report Higher Wellbeing

What does the National Literacy Trust's latest wellbeing report say about daily readers? The report "Wellbeing and reading in 2026," added 11 September 2026 and updated 9 October 2026, draws on responses from more than 52,000 children and young people aged 8 to 18 who took part in the Trust's Annual Literacy Survey in 2026. Working with Suffolk Mind, the Trust used 12 statements covering physical wellbeing, social connection, autonomy and security, and competence and purpose.

The page's headline finding on frequency: 84.9% of daily readers had high wellbeing, compared with 71.1% of those who rarely or never read.

Enjoyment, confidence, and what sat next to them

The same page says children and young people who enjoyed reading, read daily, and felt confident in their reading reported higher wellbeing than their peers.

More than 4 in 5 (83.1%) who enjoyed reading had high wellbeing, compared with 78.8% of those who did not enjoy reading.

Reading confidence showed the strongest relationship with wellbeing. The page says 84.3% of confident readers had high wellbeing, compared with 58.2% of those who lacked confidence in their reading. Turned the other way: more than 4 in 5 (82.1%) children and young people with high wellbeing were confident readers, compared with around 1 in 2 (50.3%) of those with low wellbeing.

Across enjoyment, frequency, and confidence, the page says some of the clearest differences related to social connection and to competence and purpose: feeling connected to others, capable and recognised, and able to spend time doing things that mattered.

The report then states the limit of the survey in its own words. Children and young people with higher reading engagement consistently reported higher wellbeing. The survey cannot tell whether reading supports wellbeing, wellbeing supports reading, or other factors shape both. It shows that these experiences consistently coexist.

How many young people read daily: the June reading report

A separate Trust report, "Children and young people's reading in 2026," was added 9 June 2026 and updated 10 June 2026. It is the frequency picture behind the phrase "daily readers." It draws on 125,375 children and young people aged 5 to 18 from 479 schools across the UK. That sample is larger, and younger at the bottom end, than the wellbeing report's "more than 52,000" aged 8 to 18. The two pages are reporting different cuts of the Annual Literacy Survey.

In 2026, 1 in 5 (20.3%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they read daily in their free time, up from 18.7% in 2025. The page calls this the first increase in daily reading since 2023, and says levels remain below earlier years. Daily reading increased across all age groups, particularly among those aged 14 to 16 and 16 to 18.

Among children aged 5 to 8, daily reading rose slightly to 45.5%, driven by increased daily reading in girls.

Reading enjoyment in the same report: more than 1 in 3 (36.1%) said they enjoyed reading in their free time, up from 32.7% in 2025. The page calls this the first increase in reading enjoyment since 2021. Enjoyment increased for both boys and girls and across all age groups, with the largest rises in those aged 14 to 16 and 16 to 18. Among children aged 5 to 8, enjoyment remained high overall, but fell from 62.6% in 2025 to 61.6% in 2026, driven by a decrease in boys' enjoyment.

Socio-economic inequalities widened. Enjoyment rose more among those not receiving free school meals than among those who did. Gaps in daily reading widened the same way: daily reading increased more among those not receiving free school meals than among those who did. The page does not print the size of either gap.

Reading when enjoyment is low

The June report says more children and young people who enjoyed reading read daily than those who did not: 49.8% against 4.5%. The relationship became stronger with age.

Children and young people who enjoyed reading and read daily were most likely to say that reading supported their learning, relaxation, and wellbeing, and that it helped them understand themselves and others.

Many who did not enjoy reading were still reading regularly. More than 3 in 5 read at least once a month (62.3%) and felt that reading supported their learning and understanding in particular.

The report sets those findings inside the National Year of Reading. It says the small rise in enjoyment and daily reading is welcome, inequalities remain, and many children and young people are still at risk of disengaging from reading.

Why it matters for authors

The Trust will not let the wellbeing numbers be read as a cause. The October update says the survey cannot tell whether reading supports wellbeing, the reverse, or whether something else shapes both. What it will say is that higher reading engagement and higher wellbeing show up together.

Confidence is the wide split. On the wellbeing page, enjoyed-reading versus did-not is 83.1% against 78.8%. Confident versus not confident is 84.3% against 58.2%. Daily readers versus those who rarely or never read is 84.9% against 71.1%.

Daily reading is still a minority habit among 8- to 18-year-olds. The June report puts it at 20.3%, up from 18.7% in 2025, the first increase since 2023. Enjoyment is 36.1%, up from 32.7%, the first increase since 2021. Those figures come from 125,375 respondents in 479 schools. The wellbeing percentages come from a smaller 8-to-18 cut of more than 52,000.

The gaps the June page names are age, gender, and free school meals. Enjoyment among 5- to 8-year-olds fell from 62.6% to 61.6% on a drop in boys' enjoyment, while daily reading in that age group rose to 45.5% on a rise among girls. Enjoyment and daily reading both rose more for pupils not receiving free school meals than for those who did.

Enjoyment and frequency are tightly linked, and a lot of reading happens anyway. Of those who enjoyed reading, 49.8% read daily. Of those who did not, 4.5% did. And 62.3% of those who did not enjoy reading still read at least once a month.

Sources

• National Literacy Trust: Wellbeing and reading in 2026 (added 11 September 2026, updated 9 October 2026)
• National Literacy Trust: Children and young people's reading in 2026 (added 9 June 2026, updated 10 June 2026)