More than 50 percent of the Abu Dhabi population read on a regular basis, a study has revealed.
The Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi (SCAD) released the results of Reading Opinion Poll 2022 which showed an increase in reading habit over the past three years from 38 percent to 55 percent in 2022 with 79 percent of the population preferring to read online.
As many as 92 percent believed that Abu Dhabi government entities did their part in inculcating reading culture and in 2022 the average number of reading hours to perform work tasks reached 20 hours per month. The average leisure reading time was 25 hours per month.
Ahmed Mahmoud Fikri, Director General of SCAD, said this opinion poll which covered Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Al Dhafra highlighted the reading interests and preferred topics.
As many as 61 percent of the respondents had no enough time to develop a reading habit, 51 percent said that they cannot read regularly due to work stress, 22 percent described lack of suitable atmosphere to develop a reading habit. The other 19 percent did not consider reading their hobby while the other 10 percent said that the preferred reading materials were not available.
As many as 79 percent of respondents preferred reading from the internet while nine out of ten said that the best place to read was at home.
