He attributed the difference to the country's large population and the uneven development in urban and rural areas and western and eastern parts of the country.

The annual survey, the 15th since 1999, covered 18,666 samples collected from 29 provincial-level administrations in the country. It found that 67.5 percent of urban residents had the habit of reading books in 2017, while 49.3 percent of rural residents did so.

The survey found that digital reading has been growing in the country, with 73 percent of adults reading online and with mobile gadgets, up from 68.2 percent in 2016. Adult Chinese spent 80.43 minutes a day using smartphones in 2017, over six minutes more than in 2016. About 27 minutes of that use were spent on WeChat.

Audiobooks were a new point of growth in terms of broader sense of reading habit, with 22.8 percent of adult Chinese listening to audiobooks in 2017, up 5.8 percentage points compared with 2016.

Most users chose mobile apps for audiobooks and some chose radio and audio content on WeChat.

Up to 41.2 percent of adult Chinese respondents chose audiobooks for stories. About 44 percent of those younger than 17 use them for English learning. Younger children also used the audio content to learn traditional Chinese poems and essays.