As digital reading continues to gain widespread traction across China, new national survey data reveals a steady uptick in overall reading rates among Chinese adult citizens, marking further progress in the country’s push to build a nation of avid readers.
The 2025 survey, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, was publicly announced at the fifth National Reading Conference hosted in Nanchang, the capital of east China’s Jiangxi province, on Monday. Data shows the comprehensive reading rate for Chinese adults reached 82.3 percent last year, a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2024. This marginal but consistent growth reflects the tangible outcomes of China’s long-running initiatives to promote reading across all segments of society.
Beyond rising overall reading rates, the survey offers a detailed snapshot of evolving reading habits among the Chinese public. In 2025, the combined per capita reading volume for both print paper books and electronic books hit 8.39 copies per person, while the total number of digital reading works available to Chinese readers surpassed 70 million distinct titles. Around 80.8 percent of adult respondents reported that they regularly engage in digital reading, confirming the format’s dominant position in the modern reading landscape.
The survey also highlights growing interest in supplementary reading formats: the share of adults who consume audiobooks rose 0.2 percentage points year-on-year to 38.7 percent in 2025, while the proportion of adults who watch video book reviews jumped 0.6 percentage points to 6.3 percent.
Surging consumer demand for digital reading content has driven rapid expansion of the domestic market. Over the past five years, China’s mass market for digital reading nearly doubled in size, swelling from 30.25 billion yuan (approximately 4.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 to 59.48 billion yuan in 2025.
Despite the digital boom, print books have retained significant loyal support among Chinese readers. The survey found that 45.9 percent of adults still prefer physical books over all digital formats, with literary works ranking as the most popular reading category overall.
This dual preference reveals that while Chinese readers embrace the convenience of on-the-go digital access, their demand for immersive deep thinking, structured systematic learning, and meaningful spiritual nourishment through reading has not faded in the digital era.
Wu Shulin, chairman of the Publishers Association of China, noted that even amid widespread digital adoption, deep focused reading remains the core foundation for individual personal growth, long-term career achievement, and ethical cultivation. He called for enhanced public guidance to improve the quality of digital reading and broader efforts to nurture a culture of deep reading, encouraging readers to move beyond superficial fragmented browsing and engage with more in-depth content.