Christian Retailing

Pew: Fewer Americans read print books Print Email
Written by Taylor Berglund   
Thursday, 22 October 2015 10:48 AM America/New_York

61152406  iStockphoto-BraunS-webFewer Americans are reading books compared to last year, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center. Seventy-two percent of adults said they read at least one book in whole or in part in any format in the previous 12 months, a 5 percent decline from this time last year. This decline hurt print books the most; print readership dropped from 69 to 63 percent.

The e-book market remained relatively stable (28 percent in 2014 to 27 percent in 2015). The audiobook market experienced only a small decline, from 14 percent to 12 percent.

Pew’s study notably found that young adults, aged 18 to 29, were more likely than older generations to have read a book in the past 12 months. 80 percent of young adults had read a book, compared to 30 to 49 year olds (71 percent), 50 to 64 year olds (68 percent) and those 65 or older (69 percent). Groups in other demographics that were most likely to be book readers include women, whites and individuals with high levels of education or income.

Among all Americans, the median number of books read was four, though the average number—12—was significantly higher. Twenty-seven percent of adults said they had not read any books in the past year. The average man read nine books in the past 12 months, whereas the average woman read 14.