USA Ranked 23rd in World for Time Spent Reading

By Jason Boog 

Read some books this patriotic weekend! A new infographic outlines how many hours people around the globe spend reading books, and the United States is ranked 23rd on the list.

Below, we’ve listed the top 30 countries–sorting them by mean hours spent reading. Russia Beyond the Headlines created the infographic using data from the World Culture Score index, a list compiled in 2005. Check it out:

Consumers in India are most likely to spend time reading, at an average of 10.7 hours per week, followed by consumers in Thailand and China (at 9.4 hours and 8 hours per week respectively). At 3.1, 4.1 and 5 hours respectively, individuals in Korea, Japan and Taiwan fall to the bottom of the reading list.

Hours Spent Reading Around the Globe

Mean Hours
1. India 10.7
2. Thailand 9.4
3. China 8.0
4. Philippines 7.6
5. Egypt 7.5
6. Czech Republic 7.4
7. Russia 7.1
8. Sweden 6.9
9. France 6.9
10. Hungary 6.8
11. Saudi Arabia 6.8
12. Hong Kong 6.7
13. Poland 6.5
14. Venezuela 6.4
15. South Africa 6.3
16. Australia 6.3
17. Indonesia 6.0
18. Argentina 5.9
19. Turkey 5.9
20. Spain 5.8
21. Canada 5.8
22. Germany 5.7
23. USA 5.7
24. Italy 5.6
25. Mexico 5.5
26. U.K. 5.3
27. Brazil 5.2
28. Taiwan 5.0
29. Japan 4.1
30. Korea 3.1

Link via Paris Review & Publishing Perspectives