Where more printed newspapers are read in Spain

A 22.8% of the Spanish population over 14 years old was a reader of printed newspapers in 2018, the lowest figure recorded since 1980, according to the latest data offered by the AIMC in its study "General framework of the media in Spain 2019", recently published.

However, significant differences are observed when analyzing the percentage of print newspaper readers in the different Spanish autonomous communities. Thus, in five communities – all of them in the northern Spanish area – the percentage exceeded 35%, while six CC.AA. were below 20%.

The autonomous community with the highest percentage of printed newspaper readers is Asturias, with 40.1%, almost double the Spanish average. The second is Galicia (38.7%), the third Navarra (38.1%), the fourth La Rioja (36.4%) and the fifth Cantabria (35.1%).

Catalunya, with 22.5%, is below the Spanish average (22.8%), and Madrid is even further below with 17.8% of the population reading newspapers. Only two CC.AA. have fewer print newspaper readers than Madrid: Andalucía (17%) and Castilla-La Mancha (14.5%), which closes the ranking.

The following interactive map offers a very clear portrait of the print press readership in Spain. As noted, the Autonomous Communities of the northern zone read newspapers much more than those of the central and southern zones.

Another piece of data that reveals the loss of weight of the print press in Spain during recent years is the average number of daily minutes dedicated to reading newspapers. In 2018, the lowest figure in the last two decades was recorded, with only 8.3 minutes. This is less than half of the 17.7 minutes on average dedicated by Spaniards to reading printed newspapers ten years earlier, in 2008.