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Literacy fears: The key stage 1 pupils who don't own a single book

Poverty Literacy and numeracy Parental engagement Closing the gap
More than 1 in 12 children in the UK do not have a single book of their own at home, rising to as many as 1 in 8 disadvantaged pupils and as many as 1 in 5 pupils aged 5 to 8.
Image: Adobe Stock

Research from the National Literacy Trust (Picton & Clark, 2023) shows that 8.6% of children and young people aged 5 to 18 do not own a book.

However, when it comes to those who are disadvantaged, this figure rises to 12.4% – and things are getting worse.

The annual research has revealed that the numbers of disadvantaged children without a single book has been growing since 2020 (from 7.9% to 12.4%).

It comes after NLT research earlier this year featuring more than 3,000 parents and carers found that 20% said they have had to cut back on books for their children as a result of the cost of living crisis – rising to 36% of those parents who are struggling financially (NLT, 2023).

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