Children in many countries including Kazakhstan, Albania and Estonia enjoy reading more than youngsters in the UK, research has suggested.
The UK was ranked 47th out of 65 nations in a table based on the percentage of students who read for enjoyment.
According to the PISA in Focus report, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), around two-thirds of students across OECD countries report that they read for enjoyment on a daily basis, while 37 per cent do not.
In the UK, around 60% of students aged 15 read for enjoyment, the table suggests.
Kazakhstan, Albania, Shanghai-China and Thailand topped the table, with more than 90 per cent of students saying they read for enjoyment.
The figures are drawn from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests taken by students in OECD countries in 2009.
The report says: "Reading for enjoyment is associated with reading proficiency: PISA finds that a crucial difference between students who perform well in the PISA reading assessment and those who perform poorly lies in whether they read daily for enjoyment, rather than in how much time they spend reading.
"On average, students who read daily for enjoyment score the equivalent of one and a half years of schooling better than those who do not."