A Hotbed of Literacy
From The Times of London:
Indians are the world’s most avid readers. A new survey shows that they spend twice as much time reading books, newspapers and magazines as the British, and nearly three times longer than the Japanese.
The titles they choose may not send pulses racing — How to Help Your Child Excel in Maths is a favourite — but Indians on average read for nearly 11 hours each week....
In small towns, encyclopedias and dictionaries sold by travelling salesman often occupy pride of place as the sole book owned by a family. Penguin India, for example, has sold 5,000 copies of The Ultimate Visual Dictionary.
The strong market for educational books reflects the fierce competition faced by young Indians when applying for a job or a place at one of the universities....Self-help books and textbooks are considered the quickest way to improve prosperity and social status....
Reading for pleasure is considered less useful and a novel is a bestseller if it sells 2,000-3,000 copies — a tiny number in a country of one billion people....
Here's more information (including United States information) from NOP World itself:
Globally, individuals say they spent 16.6 hours watching television, 8 hours listening to the radio, 6.5 hours reading and 8.9 hours on computers/Internet (for non-work related reasons) on average each week.
It is interesting to note that consumers in the US and UK are below the global average (5.7 and 5.3 hours per week respectively) when it comes to reading, but significantly above the average on TV viewing (19 hours per week in the US and 18 in the UK), listening to the radio (10.2 hours per week in the US and 10.5 in the UK) and just slightly below the global average for computer/Internet usage (8.8 hours per week in both the US and UK)....
Consumers in Thailand report the most time each week in front of the television at 22.4 hours per week, followed closely by the Philippines at 21.0, Egypt at 20.9 and Turkey at 20.2 hours....
Argentineans spend the most time (20.8 hours per week) listening to the radio, followed by Brazilians at 17.2 and South Africans at 15.0 hours....
Consumers in Taiwan report the most computer/Internet time, averaging 12.6 hours a week for non-work related purposes, followed by consumers in Thailand (11.7) and Spain (11.5 hours)....
Consumers in India are most likely to spend time reading, at an average of 10.7 hours per week, followed by consumers in Thailand and China (at 9.4 hours and 8 hours per week respectively)....
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