A new survey shows that Indians are the most popular readers in the world, and they spend an average of 10.7 hours a week reading, twice as much as Americans.
From February 2004 to February 2005, the NOP World Cultural Rating Index surveyed 30,000 people in 30 countries.
Analysts pointed out that self-help reading and love of reading are the main reasons why India spends more time studying per capita than other countries.
Spending time on reading means that the time spent watching TV and listening to the radio is relatively reduced, and the time spent watching TV and listening to the radio in India ranks fourth from the bottom.
The average age of 30,000 consumers surveyed by NOP is over 13 years old. Koreans and Filipinos rank second and third in reading books, newspapers and magazines every week.
The reading time of British and American weekly newspapers is only half that of Indians, while that of Japanese and China is even lower, being 4. 1 hour and 3. 1 hour respectively.
Sri Ram, executive director of Krauswoz Bookstore, which owns 26 book chains in India, said that Indians are very pioneering and reading is an indispensable part of their lives.
He said: "They pay great attention to reading. This is also the reason why they study well and perform well when studying in foreign universities. "
"People cope with changes in their lives through self-education. To do this, you must enrich yourself by reading. "
Mr. Sliram said that social changes also have an impact. "In the past, people would ask their parents or grandparents for help, but now they turn to books."
2. Britain, Britain
Britain is the country with the densest bookstores in the world, and bookstores of all sizes can be seen everywhere. The rapid development of book publishing industry in the past 10 years has made it one of the pillar industries in Britain. However, due to the global financial crisis in recent two years, the development speed of publishing industry has slowed down or even stopped. About 3/4 of book sales belong to mass consumption, and the rest comes from schools and libraries. It should be noted that there is no unified textbook in primary and secondary schools in Britain, so the proportion of publishing and purchasing supplementary books is much smaller than that in China.
3. Russia
In 2006, there were more than 14 100 public libraries in Russia, nearly 4,000 more than in the United States, and the number of libraries ranked first in the world. Moreover, the total population of Russia is less than half that of the United States, which shows how high the density of libraries is.