47.3% of the Peruvians read at least one book in 2022, the year in which 63.4% declared that they read newspapers and 22.5% magazines, according to the I National Reading Survey (ENL) that was carried out among citizens between 18 and 64 years of age in the Andean country, reported the Ministry of Culture.
When offering the results of the survey, the Minister of Culture, leslie urteagaadded that 94.5% of those who read print publications or digital during the past year did it at home or in a private place, 30.3% in the workplace, and 12.8% in transportation.
On the other hand, the rate of attendance at libraries In 2022, it reached 6.5% of the population aged 28 to 64, with 7.2% in urban areas and 3.1% in rural areas.
In that sense, the ENL indicated that the national literate population between 18 and 64 years of age reads, on average, 1.9 books per year.
These figures were released during the inauguration of the National Meeting “For a Peru that reads”which addresses the implementation of the National Policy for Reading, Books and Libraries by 2030.
Urteaga said that the meeting allows presenting the results of the I National Reading Survey 2022made thanks to a alliance with the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) with the aim of “projecting goals and indicators”.
“Understand the reading as a right also implies recognizing what their situation is. The public problem that we have identified is that, in effect, there is a limited exercise of rightor to reading by Peruvian men and women”, he pointed out.
The minister highlighted, however, the implementation of public policies in favor of the citizenship and said that the survey will help to improve the initiatives of the sector.
“The challenges of this policy have become the north of our actions. For its part, the survey now allows us to review, confirm and adjust, if necessary, these strategies ”, he emphasized.
He added that the culture Ministry acquired more than 269,000 books for an approximate amount of 12.2 million soles (US$3.2 million), which has benefited more than 400 libraries of the National Library System and another 400 reading spaces of the ministry’s network.
The National Meeting “For a Peru that Reads” is held at the Lima headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and will bring together until next Thursday, in talks and conversations, actors in the book and reading sector, with national and international specialists.
Between the speakers guests are the mexican Mariana Morales, cultural manager and specialist in promoting reading; the Colombian Didier Alvarez, librarian, teacher and researcher; and the Argentine Roberto Igarza, specialist in digital culture; in addition to national specialists and representatives of institutions linked to the promotion of reading.