A sharp and apparently steady collapse in book borrowings from public libraries was disclosed yesterday.

Last year we took out nearly 104m fewer library books than we did a decade ago. The total of books issued in the UK has plunged by 21.2% since 1989.

The worst drop, of 25%, is in Scotland, which prides itself on reading. In Wales the fall is 19%, in Northern Ireland 15.9%, in England 21%.

"It does seem to be the beginning of an apparent collapse in borrowings," Claire Creaser, statistician at the library and information statistics unit at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, said yesterday.

The trend is underlined in Annual Library Statistics 2000, compiled by the Loughborough unit. In 1989 the public borrowed 492m library books, a figure which has fallen year by year to 388m last year.

Earlier figures for the 1980s - when there was a drop of about 12% in borrowings - indicate the fall is part of a long-term trend that grew steeper in the 1990s. If the trend continues the public will soon be borrowing fewer than half the 660m library books it took out in 1981.

The more recent decline is blamed partly on cheese-paring cuts in library opening hours and staff throughout the 1990s, one of the worst decades for the service since it was set up in the 19th century.

Britain now has only one professional librarian per 9,300, compared with one for every 7,100 in 1989.

Spending on books fell steadily until last year, when it rose slightly. But the detailed figures also strongly indicate a shift in public leisure habits.

The biggest pointer to this is the decline in borrowing of adult fiction - down 31% in the UK. Non-fiction is 14% down. The only habit immune to this trend is borrowing by children. This has increased slightly during the decade.

In Scotland, however, even borrowing by children has dropped, by 10%. Adult fiction loans are down 29% and non-fiction loans are down 24%.

The forces drawing people away from public libraries and the habit of reading are seen as including television, shopping, increased part-time working, increased drinking, weekend football-watching, videos, gym, and possibly the internet.

The statistics show library spending on books went up in real terms from £91.2m in 1998 to £91.9m last year, as part of a government effort to stop the rot.