Scottish schoolchildren better at reading than English and Welsh Scottish schoolchildren are better at reading than their English and Welsh peers and are happier too, research has suggested. Professor Chris Taylor of Cardiff University, who led the study, said that the gap in reading between nations was "worrying." The researchers used data from the Millennium Cohort study, which is tracking around 19,000 children, to compare reading and literacy levels between England, Wales and Scotland at the ages of three, five and seven. The findings show that at age three, youngsters in England and Wales were performing at about the same level in being able to name words - but were behind children of the same age in Scotland. By the time they were five, pupils in England had made faster progress - catching up with their Scottish counterparts - with Welsh children lagging slightly behind. And at age seven, schoolchildren in England and Scotland had similar reading levels, with those from Wales falling behind again. The study also looked at children's happiness, or well-being, and found that seven-year-olds in Wales and Scotland reported higher levels of well-being than those in England. The study goes on to say that other factors, such as social class or ethnicity, can lead to bigger differences in pupils' results than the country they hail from. At age three, children from ethnic minorities had lower literacy levels on average than those from a white background, but by the time they were seven the situation had changed, with ethnic minority children ahead in reading. Prof Taylor said: "The results are worrying for Wales as they suggest literacy development in the primary years is not as great as it is in England and provide strong evidence for the kind of programme of reform seen in Wales in the last few years, such as the introduction of the Foundation Phase, the National Literacy and Numeracy Programme and annual national testing." The study did find that Welsh pupils are ahead of those in England and Wales at age seven in reasoning, and in maths, English and Welsh seven-year-olds had similar performance levels, with those in Scotland slightly behind.