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Children's books are eight times more likely to feature an animal than a non-white person in the lead role.

The research comes from the Centre of Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) which says that the number of black, Asian or minority ethnic main characters in children's books has increased to 5%, compared to 4% in 2018 and just 1% in 2017.

However, publishers say that 38% of their books feature animals or objects as main characters.

Books that feature any character from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds have also increased to 10%, up from 7% in 2018 and 4% in 2017.

Farrah Serroukh, who directed the CLPE project said: "We're pleased that it continues to go up, year on year, but the starting point was just so low.

"We want to encourage the publishing industry just to continue to strive for better," said Farrah.

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The diversity in children's books also doesn't reflect the kind of representation seen in UK schools, where a third of primary aged kids are from minority backgrounds.

Speaking in the Guardian newspaper, Sarah Crown, director of literature at Arts Council England, says the situation needs to change.

"While it's encouraging to see consistent improvement over the past three years, there is significantly more work to be done, to ensure all children can see themselves in the books they read and that the children's publishing industry reflects the diversity of 21st-century Britain," she said.

Meanwhile, another report into diversity from children's reading charity BookTrust, found that the number of people of colour working as authors and illustrators in the UK has doubled over the last two years.

Jill Coleman, director of children's books at BookTrust said:

"I think there has been quite a change in people's attitudes, due to all sorts of things going on since the last report was published, not least Black Lives Matter, which really did impact on publishers. And so publishers have a different attitude now, they're much more interested in making change, and are aware that the situation is not a good one."