Writing for pleasure is at crisis point – new research from literacy charity shows

New research published today (Wednesday 25 June) by the National Literacy Trust, shows the downward trend in the number of children and young people writing for pleasure in the UK has continued into 2025. 

The National Literacy Trust’s survey of nearly 115,000 children and young people aged 5 to 18 confirms a deepening disengagement from writing. It paints a troubling picture of declining enjoyment, motivation, and habits, with concerning long-term implications for learning and literacy outcomes. 

Declining levels of writing enjoyment and engagement closely parallel worrying trends in academic performance. Writing now ranks as the lowest-performing area in national assessments, falling even below mathematics.

2025’s writing for pleasure statistics

Building on 2024 findings that drew attention to a sustained decline in writing enjoyment, the 2025 report reveals that:

• One in four (26.6%) young people aged eight to 18 enjoy writing in their free time. This marks a near halving of writing enjoyment over the past 15 years. 
• Just one in 10 (10.4%) young people write something in their free time each day. This is 61% fewer when compared with 2010. 
• Young children aged eight to 11, who have historically shown higher levels of writing enjoyment, are now losing enthusiasm the fastest.
• Girls, traditionally more engaged in writing than boys, have seen sharper year-on-year declines in writing enjoyment.   

Writing for pleasure motivation 

Choice in the format of writing also plays an important role.  While paper-based writing remains the most common format, less enthusiastic writers showed a preference for digital writing often through formats connected to music, media, and personal communication. 

Previous research from the National Literacy Trust has shown that when children and young people enjoy writing and write daily in their free time, their writing skills, critical thinking skills, confidence, creativity and wellbeing benefit. 

Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literacy Trust said: “The findings offer a sobering view of writing culture in the UK but also point to actionable insights. By focusing on what motivates children and young people, particularly autonomy, creativity, and personal and cultural relevance, they are far more likely to engage with it on their own terms. That’s where true progress begins.

He added: “We live in an age of generative-AI where tools to both write and read texts play an increasingly important role in the literacy lives of children and young people. If children are to get the most out of what AI can offer with the ability to add their own thoughts and check outputs, empowering young people with the writing skills they need is critical.

“This is something we will be exploring in depth in our forthcoming reports that seek to understand young people and teachers’ use of generative AI to support literacy in 2025, and as part of our Future of Literacy work.”

Responding to the news, Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “A love of writing can not only have benefits for children’s wellbeing and creativity, as this research shows, it can also help them in their learning.

“In its current form, unfortunately the curriculum does little to encourage this. The government’s curriculum and assessment review has heard how children are having to spend too much time learning to meet assessment criteria when it comes to writing.

“This echoes what we have heard from school leaders, who have told us how the Key Stage 2 writing framework focuses too narrowly on the technical aspects of writing at the expense of flair and imagination.

“There are of course strong links between reading and writing, but research has also shown that children are reading less, and again, the overcrowded primary curriculum is not helping, with time for children to read for pleasure having been increasingly squeezed out.

“The curriculum review is an opportunity to put these things right and support children with the literacy skills needed to navigate life and make connections between learning in the classroom and life outside it.”