The United Kingdom's top three free titles have watched their readership numbers rise in the past few years, according to the last National Readership Survey (NRS), Newspaper Innovation reported Sunday.

Metro saw its readership increase to about 3.2 million, up from less than two million readers three year ago. Compared to the entire year of 2007, Metro saw a 20 percent increase in readership in 2008.

Associated's London Lite has 1.1 million readers in London, followed by thelondonpaper (owned by News International), with 989,000 readers, according to Newspaper Innovation.

London Lite's readership is up 28 percent compared to 2007, while thelondonpaper saw a 22 percent increase.

On average, 2.4 people read one copy of Metro, while London Lite has 2.6 readers per copy and thelondonpaper has two readers for every copy distributed, Newspaper Innovation reported.

Newspaper Innovation also offered this chart: