American Reading Statistics: According to a Poll Survey

Books are a significant part of our day-to-day lives. Not only does it renders knowledge on any particular topic/subject, but it also provides good focus, overall empathy, memory, and an expansive vocabulary. When it comes to book reading, American readers sure have a different story.

A 2022 research was conducted by Test Prep Insight through a national poll to get a quick analysis of American reading habits. In this survey, they asked 1,621 adults about their overall reading habits in the past 12 months.

The results state:

• 48.5% of the participants/respondents of the survey didn’t read any books for the past 12 months.
• 45.1% of the 65+ age group read print books, making the highest population involved in the same genre.
• 60.9% of the 45-54 group holds the most number of non-readers.
• On average, 34.4% of the people who took part in the survey were into standard print books, 14% into e-books, and about 10.7% in audiobooks.
• About 51.4% of male readers responded to being non-readers.
• As for audiobooks, 17% of respondents/participants from the 18-24 age group were involved in the genre. Meanwhile, only 5.3% of the respondents from the old age group (65+) were into audiobook listening.
• For print books and e-books categories read as per gender, women read more than men.
• After comparing the two results (men vs. women), the ratio was 38.7% vs. 32.0% and 17.1% vs. 13.6% for print books and e-books, respectively.
• The Bible was number four, with an average of 0.7% readers.

From the above results/data, one thing is surely clear print books have remained a favorite for readers, despite the rise of e-books/audiobooks. While the trend remains the same (as of now), only time will tell whether these digital texts can replace physical books in the future.

If you want to read more about the research, check out Test Prep Insight’s book reading statistics.