Irish citizens are among the most avid newspaper readers in Europe, as 86 percent of the country's population regularly reads newspapers, according to the latest Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS), Adworld.ie revealed today.

Nonetheless, press readership has declined in the last 12 months by 10,000 to 3,522,000 readers, The Irish Times reported.

Photo source: Newstalk
"The slight fall in overall readership can be attributed, in the main part, to a reduction in people at work," Frank Cullen of National Newspapers of Ireland, told Adworld.ie. He explained the press is traditionally passed around by workers "so with fewer people in employment there are simply fewer opportunities to share newspapers."

The survey, which is conducted by Millward Brown Lansdowne, also showed that the Irish Independent is the top daily in the readership ranking, as it gained 5,000 readers for a total of 560,000.

Meanwhile, The Independent pointed out that its direct competitors, The Irish Times and the Irish Examiner, had joint losses of 11,000 readers for a total of 359,000 and 204,000 readers, respectively.

According to JNRS, other dailies that suffered losses were the Irish Daily Star, which saw readership decline by 52,000, to 410,000; The Irish Sun, down by 26,000 to 285,000; and The Irish Mail, which lost 2,000 readers, for a total of 144,000.