Between 2000 and 2009, on average across OECD countries the percentage of children who reported reading for enjoyment daily dropped by five percentage points.
Reading drops to its lowest point in the 16-24 age group, and recovers a bit at later ages. Other surveys have found similar results. And Britain is among the worst-hit, possibly because of the wider use of smartphones in this country.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Social historians have long stressed how the start of silent, individual reading was pivotal in developing "intellectual rigour, introspection, criticism of the government and religion, even irony and cynicism that would have been awkward to read aloud".
All those things we need today. To re-establish the culture of reading, in the first place among left activists, must be one of our tasks.