News publishers are being encouraged look at what drives scrolling after a survey showed differing habits in different parts of the world.

Research by Chartbeat indicates that readers in the Asia Pacific and North America are more likely to scroll through an article they have downloaded that they were three years ago, while those in the rest of the world are less likely to do so.

A survey of reader trends found the chances of someone scrolling through was dictated by where they were in the world, results showing the percentage of readers who actually scroll.

Publisher data technology company Chartbeat says whether a reader scrolled at all during a visit, or bounced after viewing only the first window of a page is a key indicator of engagement and loyalty. The survey analysed percentage of readers who scrolled by region, and compared 2018 data to that for 2021.

They found that in the Asia-Pacific and North America, more readers showed scroll behaviour in May 2021 compared to 2018, while in the rest of the world, the number of readers who scolled had fallen.

They suggest encouraging readers to scroll by optimising their on-page experience, using the ‘heads up display’ scroll indicator to run experiments until they find the right tactics for a site.