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• The percentage of Americans adults who read at least one book of fiction or nonfiction in the previous 12 months (outside of work or school requirements) fell to the lowest level on record in 2017 (Indicator V-04a). In 1992, 61% of Americans had read a book for pleasure during the previous year, but by 2017 less than 53% had done so.
• From 1992 to 2017, the greatest decline in book-reading rates (of between 12 and 14 percentage points, depending on the age group) occurred among adults under the age of 55. For Americans age 55 or older, book-reading rates either increased or declined by a much smaller amount.
• In 2012, the U.S. book-reading rate among 25-to-64-year-olds (55%) was comparable to the rates in Poland and Lithuania but substantially lower than the rates in Austria, Finland, Germany, and Luxembourg (which were all above 72%; Indicator V-04b).2
• In spite of the overall decline in the percentage of American adults reading at least one book each year, their participation in book clubs and reading groups increased (Indicator V-04c). In 2017, approximately 5% of Americans engaged with books in this way, up from 3.5% in 2012. Women were more likely to participate than were men, and the higher a person’s education level, the more likely he or she was to have been part of such a group (Indicator V-04d).

Endnotes

• 1The term “reading rate” used in this topic refers to the share of people who read at least one book in the previous year for pleasure (rather than for work or school).
• 2Data were not collected in 2011/2012 for all European Union countries. Thus, the U.S. adult book-reading rate cannot be compared to those of France, Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom, among others.