23 April, World Book Day
Just over half of young people in the Basque Country (56%) say they have read a book for entertainment in the last month
The percentage of young people in the Basque Country aged 15 to 29 who say they have read a book for entertainment in the last month in 2025 is 56.0%, a percentage similar to that recorded last year (58.1%).
There is a marked difference between young women and young men in relation to this leisure activity. In 2025, among women, 66.0% say that they have read a book for leisure in the last month; among young men the percentage drops to 46.6%, in other words, there is a difference of almost 20 percentage points.
The habit of reading in leisure time is more common among women than among men, as shown by the evolution of the data.
The habit of reading as a leisure activity is more widespread among people aged 20-29 than among those under 20. This has not always been the case, though; in 2016, 15-19 year olds were the most likely to read in their free time.
If we focus on the data for 2025 and cross-reference gender and age, we see that reading is more common among women aged 20-29, while this habit is less widespread among men aged 15-19.
The data presented here come from different surveys that the "Observatorio Vasco de la Juventud (Basque Youth Observatory) has carried out over the last few years among the Basque population aged 15 to 29. The data for 2025, specifically, come from a survey carried out between March and April of this year in which 2,250 young people took part.
