1 in 7 High Schoolers Has Never Read a Book, Study Finds

One out of every seven high schoolers in Korea complete their schooling without reading a single book other than textbooks, according to a new study.

Advertisement

The Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training analyzed surveys of 10,558 high schoolers in 2016 and found that 15.5 percent of them did not read a book during the three school years before graduation.

The average number of books -- excluding magazines, comics and study guides -- read by high school students was 1.8 per month.

The biggest factor in the amount of reading done by high school students was the amount of time they spent studying alone, according to the institute. The more a student studied alone, the higher the chance of reading books.

Book reading also seems to have an effect on academic performance. The average scholastic achievement score among readers was 5.64, compared to 4.75 for those who shunned books. Students who read more than one book a month scored 5.57 points, while those who read fewer than one book scored 5.46 points.