Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Is it true that Arabs read an average of only four pages per year?
Occasionally one sees a statistic that is so absurd it begs for deconstruction:
The average Arab in the Middle East reads approximately four pages worth of literature a year, according to a RIA Novosti Russian news service report published in November.
The Syrian newspaper Tishreen, commenting on a recent survey conducted by the United Nations, said that according to the study, Americans read an average of 11 books a year, with the average Briton reading eight books.
Regular readers know that I am more than willing to say that the Arab Muslim culture is less productive than most of its competitors, but even I think that this statistic is ridiculous. There are, at most, 500 million Arabs. If they average only four pages each per year, that amounts to only two billion pages. If only four million Arabs, less than 1% of the population including all the children in schools and students in universities and less than 2% of the literate population, read the equivalent of one novel in a year, that right there would account for more than four pages per capita. How could the number possibly be that low?
Anyway, if you needed any evidence that the study in question was flawed (or the article garbled its results) look no further than this:
The U.N. survey reported that every year, one new book title is published per 12,000 people in the Arab world, as compared with one per 500 people in Britain. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) says Israel publishes more than 4,000 books a year, making Israel the second highest per-capita publisher in the world, after the People's Republic of China.
Got that? Does anybody in their right mind think that the People's Republic of China publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world?
7 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Dec 09, 12:34:00 AM:
Oh, how soon we forget, from 9th grade, Chairman Mao's little red book (brought to you by Jeff Gringer in social studies class, about 12 months after he walked into 8th grade social studies and gave a Heil Hitler salute to the Nazi flag hanging there).
I can only imagine that the hot read that book made is evidence of a thriving and prolific literary industry.
By 
Mike, at
Tue Dec 09, 08:16:00 AM:
At 4,000 books per year, Israel would have to have fewer than 2,000,000 souls to beat out Britain's per-capita rate of 1 book per 500 people.
But if the General Assembly approves it, I guess it must be right.
By , at
Tue Dec 09, 08:51:00 AM:
This reminds me of a health survey that based a citys "fatness" level on the number of people in health clubs, miles of road, and number of fast food outlets. But no sample weigh-ins.
By , at
Tue Dec 09, 10:37:00 AM:
....but then, how do they know who Allah says to kill if they can't READ what he said.........?
Oh, wait. Never mind. They don't have to read it, some imam tells them what it says....or not.
Hmmmmmmmmmm......
By , at
Tue Dec 09, 12:30:00 PM:
The claim about the PRC’s publishing does seem out of whack. Here is what the Arab Human Development Report says about translation in the Arab World. (page 18)
In terms of quantity,and notwithstanding the increase in the number of translated books from 175 per year during 1970-1975 to 330, the number of books translated in the Arab world is one fifth of the number translated in Greece. The aggregate total of translated books from the Al-Ma’moon era to the present day amounts to 10,000 books - equivalent to what Spain translates in a single year (Shawki Galal, in Arabic,1999, 87)3.
This disparity was revealed in the first half of the 1980s when the average number of books translated per 1 million people in the Arab world during the 5-year period was 4.4(less than one book for every million Arabs), while in Hungary it was 519, and in Spain 920.
(Figure 2.9.)
( For Israel it appears to be about 350)
The Arab HDR also has some publishing (table A-10 : VALUES OF INDICATORS ON KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL IN 109 COUNTRIES, AROUND THE YEAR 2000) statistics,taken from the UN. It lists the UK at 1868 books published per million people, which is roughly equivalent to 1 book per 500 people listed for Great Britain. The Arab HDR also lists Israel as publishing 382 books per million people, which would be about 2800 books for its 7.3 million inhabitants. The publishing figures are old, though, so the 4000 figure may be correct. In any event , the publishing figures for the UN and the Israeli Foreign Ministry are close. The per capita publishing figures for Israel in the article TH cites are definitely out of whack: not second highest in the world, and the PRC is definitely not first. Guess the US is not the only country with stupid journalists ( for not checking) ! How difficult is it to take 4000 books published and 7 million inhabitants, and compare that with Great Britain/UK, for example?
( The Arab publishing statistic appears accurate, but I am not going to change UN country by country data into an aggregate stat, as converting PDF into EXCEL is beyond my capabilities for this one.) ( note that the translation figures are for a five-year period, while the publishing figures are annual.)
By Viking Kaj, at
Tue Dec 09, 01:30:00 PM:
Maybe its just that paper is scarce, don't ask why they eat with their right hand only...
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Dec 09, 09:36:00 PM:
There are demographical peculiarities to consider as well. Not all Arabs are equal. There are plenty of Arabs who still live as wandering, nomadic Bedouin and most of them cannot even read. (nor do they have any interest in learning) Fellahin in Egypt and shepherds in Yemen are in the same fix.
So when you count the at least semi-urbanized Arabs with access to things like schools, literature, and such, the numbers might make a little more sense.
