Report: Children's lit in the U.K. is overwhelmingly white

A first-of-its-kind research project in England has found that characters in children’s books are overwhelmingly white.

The survey found that only 4 percent had black or minority ethnic characters, period, while even fewer had a main character that fit that description — just 1 percent — according to The Guardian.

Last year, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education asked U.K. publishers to submit books featuring black/minority ethnic characters. It received 9,115 submissions.

More than half of the books with black/minority ethnic characters were classified as “contemporary realism” while 10 percent contained “social justice issues,” The Guardian reported. 

Just one title with a black/minority character was a comedy.

For context, England's Department of Education reported that 32.1 percent of schoolchildren were of minority ethnic origin last year.

Read the full report here and The Guardian’s analysis here.