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That study fails to meet basic plausibility criteria. According to the CIA World Factbook India has a literacy rate of only 61 %. Whatever the real figure may be, India obviously has a massive problem with illiteracy. Yet we are supposed to believe that of all countries people read most in India on average?
The same is true for Egypt, which also has major issues with illiteracy.
Venezuela also ranks very highly on that list. When I lived in Caracas in the late 1990s one of the most annoying aspects of living there was the extreme scarcity of bookshops in that major capital city. I am not talking about the sort of bookshop one takes for granted in cities like London, Paris or Berlin, but normal, well stocked bookshops. Finding one was like coming across a new oasis in the desert. There also was no culture of reading in public, e.g. in the parks or while riding the (absolutely first class) metro. So how are those figures supposed to add up?
This seems one of these studies where a lot of more or less trustworthy data is being added up without anyone ever taking a step back and asking if the figures are plausible at all.
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