Reading can do many things. It educates, amazes, entertains, thrills and stimulates. A recent study in the UK found it can reduce the feeling of chronic pain. It can transport you to different worlds, to places you could never have dreamed. It can let you see from perspectives you might otherwise not understand. It’s magical that way.

Endless are the benefits and as World Book Day passes our focus turns to children and their celebration of the written word. Kids swept into schools across the UK dressed in their favourite literary characters; Voldesmorts, Willy Wonkas and Goldilockses gleefully filled classrooms. Fun was certainly had but the importance of this celebration cannot be underestimated.

Dr Marion Wynne-Davies, professor of English literature and co-ordinator of children’s literature at the University of Surrey, describes giving a child a book as a “gift of love”.

She said: “Buying a book for a child is not only about helping them learn to read and improving their literacy skills. Rather, it is a gift of love. Whatever their age, take them to a bookshop and join them in searching out the books they find stimulating and exciting.”

In 1970, a study began to explore the difference reading for pleasure can make in people’s lives. Since its inception, the British Cohort Study has followed the lives of more than 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales. During their lives, researchers collected data on factors such as economic circumstance, education, health, physical and social development.

Of the participants, 6,000 took various cognitive tests at 16. Children from the same social backgrounds who tested as having similar ability at age five and 10 were compared. The study found children who read frequently at ten had higher results across all spectrums. Reading books when they were younger actually increased their mathematical abilities a few years down the line.

Reading had an impact four times greater than having a parent with a post-secondary degree.

Events such as World Book Day, when millions of children are sent out free book vouchers, are essential to improve children’s lives and their futures. Reading statistics in children inspire hope- it’s on the increase. However, overall the statistics are not ideal.

Only 26 per cent of 10 year-year-olds in England enjoy reading for pleasure compared to 46 per cent in Portugal or 42 per cent in Georgia. Only one in ten people own a single book.

Literacy levels reveal huge gaps in equality with five-year-olds eligible for free school meals scoring 19 percentage points lower in literacy skills than their peers.

According to the Reading Agency, a London based charity aiming to inspire people to read, “the degree of inequality in reading levels for children aged ten is higher in England than in almost all other developed countries”.

By the final year of compulsory education, students from disadvantaged backgrounds have reading levels on average two and a half years behind their wealthier counterparts. This can in turn affect the economy with low literacy skills costing the UK an estimated £81 billion a year on increased welfare spending. In England, the average hourly pay for people who have higher literacy levels is 94 per cent more than those who don’t.

London fares better than most areas. The National Literary Trust published a report that found 86 per cent of English constituencies have “entrenched” literacy problems. Only Greenwich and Woolwich were included in that majority.

But there is still much work to be done. Schemes such as ‘Inspiring Reading’ by social mobility charity the Mayor’s Fund for London exist. It trains volunteers to help children who are falling behind in reading. The charity acknowledges illiteracy is closely linked to crime and ill-health and children from deprived backgrounds can break negative cycles by learning literacy skills.

In 2015, 700 pupils in 88 London primary schools were supported with their reading by the programme and 74 per cent of pupils raised their SAT standard at least two sub-levels.

Sue Wilkinson, CEO of The Reading Agency, said: “Making reading accessible to everyone requires concerted action from a range of organisations and partners; good schools are critically important but on their own they cannot solve the problem.

“Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education and is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio economic background.”

“To encourage people to keep reading outside school or college and even after leaving formal education, we need to make it something that they enjoy and want to do with their family, carers, peers and friends.”

The CEO asserts it’s important for children to see their parents reading and advises going to libraries.

She said: “Public libraries, our key partners, are free for everyone and run activities for people of all ages – from reading groups to the Summer Reading Challenge – so they are the perfect place for anyone to start their reading journey.”

Reading clearly has a positive impact on children’s lives. Maybe World Book Day could become a twice- or thrice- yearly event. No reader ever forgets the first book they fell in love with- books really can change your life.