The new ESRI Report, In the Frame or Out of the Picture?, analyses current involvement in the Arts in Ireland in terms of participation in the arts, attendance at arts events and reading habits.
It comes up with some interesting statistics relating to poetry:
Women are more than twice as likely to read poetry than men
Age, gender, educational attainment are among other factors that impinge on the readership of poetry but not social class. Interestingly social class is a factor in other categories of reading choice.
Age is (surprise surprise) a major factor in readership of poetry with over 65’s over six times more likely to read it than 35 – 44 year olds
Poetry reading is strongly related to educational attainment; the post-grad holder figure is over 3 times the figure of those without third level qualifications.
It would be nice to see an analysis of interest in poetry in all its guises undertaken under the auspices of Poetry Ireland, an organization that would have the influence to implement a strategy to deal with the findings. In particular, I would be interested to learn how the colossal exposure of second level students in Ireland translates into such low levels of manifest interest and appreciation.
Surely there is an urgent need for a move to be made in this direction?
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