Band 8.0 — Bar Chart: Books Read per Year by Age Group and Gender

The bar chart compares the average number of books read each year by men and women across four age groups in one country.

Overall, women were more avid readers than men in every age bracket, and reading tended to increase with age for both sexes, the only exception being a dip among people in their thirties and forties.

Among the youngest adults, women read 14 books annually against just 9 for men, whereas among the over-65s the corresponding figures stood at 20 and 16 respectively—a gap of roughly four to five books that persisted across the chart. The most enthusiastic readers were women over 65, who finished 20 books a year, two and a half times the total managed by the least active group, men aged 30–49.

Age shaped both sexes similarly. Reading dipped slightly between the 18–29 bracket and the 30–49 group, presumably the busiest stage of life, before climbing steadily thereafter. Indeed, from the age of 50 onwards, both men and women read more than any younger group of the same gender.