The Reflecting Realities report is an annual survey that reviews the extent and quality of Ethnic Representation in picture books, fiction and non-fiction titles for primary-aged children (ages 3-11) published in the UK.

The first Reflecting Realities report (2018) looked at books published in 2017 and provided a benchmark against which future publishing could be measured. Until this year, subsequent reports had shown a year-on-year rise in Ethnic Representation in children’s literature, while also highlighting that there was still work to do to ensure that children’s books in the UK reflected the rich diversity of their readers’ lives.

For the first time in its history, the 2024 Reflecting Realities report shows a drop in the overall percentage of children’s books that feature a racially minoritised character, prompting calls for renewed commitment from the publishing industry to improve the volume and quality of inclusive books for children.

Key findings from the 2024 Reflecting Realities report:

• Across all three categories – picture books, fiction and non-fiction – only 17% of titles published in 2023 featured racially minoritised characters, compared to 30% in 2022. The report identified 999 books that featured racially minoritised characters in 2023 compared to 954 books in 2022. While this represents a slight year-on-year increase, this rise did not keep pace with the significant increase in the overall number of published titles eligible for consideration in this year’s study – an increase from 3195 titles in 2022 to 5884 titles in 2023.
• The drop in overall representation across all three categories is echoed in the percentage of racially minoritised main characters, which fell from 14% in 2022 to 7% in 2023.
• Picture books continue to have the highest proportion of presence of the three text types, with 55% of books featuring a racially minoritised character. This marks a slight increase on last year’s result (52%) but still does not bring the figure back up to the 61% reported for titles published in 2021.
• The percentage of non-fiction books that featured racially minoritised characters fell for the second year in a row in 2023, down from 30% in 2022 to 22%.
• Fiction has always been the category with the lowest levels of representation. In 2023, levels of minoritised presence fell for the first time in the report’s history, down to 11% from 24% in 2022. However, the report did welcome the range of genres that centred racially minoritised characters.
• Overall, the report’s authors warned against the dangers of complacency and called for the publishing industry to ‘take the lessons learned and remain steadfast in their commitment to reflecting realities and serving their readership.’ Farrah Serroukh, Executive Director of Research and Development at CLPE.

You can read the full 2024 report here.

Cost: Free.

About Centre for Literacy in Primary Education: CLPE is an independent charity whose aim is to raise the literacy achievement of children in primary schools by putting quality children’s literature at the heart of all learning. They have over 40 years’ experience of providing evidence-based CPD training and high-quality resources to support teachers.