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I've seen this statistic reported on several sites (for example, Those Who Don't Build Must Burn and Want To Do Meaningful Work? Keep Reading. Literally), along with a list of other startling numbers.

  • 33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
  • 42% of college graduates never read another book after college.
  • 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
  • 70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
  • 57% of new books are not read to completion.

According to the Mental Floss article Who Reads Books? these numbers came from a 2003 survey conducted by an organization called the Jenkins Group. That article mentions that they've been unable to uncover any explanation of the results, and I haven't been able to find the original survey myself. (Do a search for some of the phrases in the bulleted list above and you'll see that the survey has been quoted so many times that it makes finding anything useful via a Google search very difficult.)

My own very biased and unscientific survey of "a bunch of people that I know" makes me skeptical of the reported figures. My question has two parts:

  1. Has anyone verified (or debunked) the results of the original survey? (If anyone can even find it.)
  2. A lot has changed since 2003 (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, ebooks). Have there been any more recent surveys that show a decline in the statistics reported by the Jenkins Group?
Sklivvz
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Bill the Lizard
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    My gut says these numbers are probably in the ballpark for the US. Looking forward to seeing any answers... – Rex M May 14 '12 at 23:07
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    Interesting question. I don't believe the year 2003 is significant in this case. If you look at Wikipedia's list of best-selling books there are numerous books that have sold a lot more than the ones you mention. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books – Brian Rasmussen May 14 '12 at 23:11
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    What percentage of books are even *intended* to be read to completion? I've never read a cookbook to completion. Were those counted in the stats? – Flimzy May 14 '12 at 23:13
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    The figure for not having been in a bookstore is actually fairly plausible depending upon where you live but some more context is definitively needed for some of those numbers. – rjzii May 14 '12 at 23:42
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    The [National Assessment of Adult Literacy](http://nces.ed.gov/naal), by the National Center for Education Statistics, does NOT directly answer your questions, but gives a much better idea of the literacy levels of adult Americans than the metric of how many bookstores they have entered. – Oddthinking May 15 '12 at 00:38
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    I would say that more and more often books are bought online rather than in a bookstore... – nico May 15 '12 at 07:30
  • I have entered a bookstore in the last 5 years, although it's likely I have not purchased a book in a bookstore in the last 5 years. I have read a dozen books on my Kindle in the last year, though. – Flimzy May 15 '12 at 08:12
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    *Harry Potter* isn't a very good example of a book that adult people would read. – vartec May 15 '12 at 08:47
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    @vartec I know a lot of adults who have read both *HP* and *HG* series, but yeah, *most* of the readers of those series probably wouldn't count. *The da Vinci Code* (published in 2003) would probably have been a better example. – Bill the Lizard May 15 '12 at 10:37
  • @nico I would hope that shopping for books at an online bookstore would count in a survey like this. (I don't think Amazon really qualifies as a *bookstore* anymore, since they sell everything now. I don't remember if that was the case 9 years ago.) – Bill the Lizard May 15 '12 at 10:40
  • I'm skeptical of all data gathered by survey. Potenial for misleading questions, demographics of areas covered. It'd be great, if more surveys could be independently verified. – Rob Colburn May 15 '12 at 15:10
  • @RobColburn: I'm not. It's in line with similar stats from other countries. Although I wouldn't be so alarmist about that, and saying that "people don't read", actually AFAIR, other surveys say they do read more than ever, except not books, but all kinds of articles and blogs on-line. – vartec May 15 '12 at 20:45
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    @RobColburn that's a bit unreasonable. You should ask for surveys in which how the questions and people are chosen is specified, and that are peer-reviewed. These are just few of the ways in which we can significantly reduce error (voluntary or involuntary) on surveys. – Sklivvz May 15 '12 at 22:44
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    Being a student, I'm often forced to buy used books at yard sales/flea markets/second hand stores. I doubt they account for that in the study quoted. – Exilyth Apr 21 '13 at 18:41
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    The information in that slide has supposedly been debunked by the Jenkins Group themselves for being not only a decade out of date (in 2012) but also possibly completely erroneous (as nobody can remember the exact sources): http://www.libereading.com/2012/04/in-which-i-execute-some-hard-hitting.html – Django Reinhardt Oct 12 '15 at 21:24
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    Do comic books count? – userLTK May 23 '18 at 06:18

4 Answers4

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Brief summary for those who don't want to read the whole thing - reading in the United States is in decline, but not to the extent suggested by the Jenkins Group survey.

I'll take each point from the question in turn and attempt to answer it.

I wasn't able to find the Jenkins Group survey referred to, however I found two useful reports by National Endowment for the Arts - To Read or Not To Read and Reading At Risk and I'll mostly be using these.

33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives

and

42% of college graduates never read another book after college

Reading At Risk shows the rates of literature reading amongst high school and college graduates:

Literary Reading by Education

Note that respondents were asked if they had read any novels, short stories, plays, or poetry in their leisure time (not for work or school) during the previous 12 months. So this would appear to be a narrower question than that asked by the Jenkins Group survey.

It's also worth noting that the more education you have received the more likely you are to read literature, which is the opposite of what was claimed by the Jenkins Group survey.

80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year

This graph from Reading At Risk shows that 56.6% of individuals stated that they had read a book in the previous 12 months.

Participation in Literary Activities

If 56.6% of individuals have read a book, then I don't see how only 20% of households could have read a book.

70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years

I was unable to find much useful data on this point. Bookstores have been in decline and now account for less than half of book sales (source):

Traditional bookstores accounted for less than half of the book market last year ... The majority of books were sold by a variety of other retailers including Amazon, Price Clubs, supermarkets and convenience stores.

It's worth noting that book sales have been relatively flat (source - To Read or Not To Read), and I'm not convinced that it matters where a book was bought.

Unit Sales of Consumer Books

57% of new books are not read to completion

I was unable to find any useful data on this point.

Tom77
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    Quite interesting, but the data is 10 years old. This is especially relevant, I think, for the bookstore stats. Surely bookstore visits/sales have dropped significantly in the last 10 years, compared to online sales. (I agree with you that this doesn't _really_ matter, but it is relevant to the specific claim). – Flimzy May 15 '12 at 18:50
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    The survey in the question was from 2003, so I think data from 2002 is OK. – Tom77 May 15 '12 at 22:04
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    Thank you. It was the first three stats that I was really most curious about. I agree that "70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years" wasn't really that meaningful to begin with, and is losing ground every day. "57% of new books are not read to completion" was the most believable of the claims in my mind, but that's mostly due to the fact that many books just aren't meant to be read cover to cover. – Bill the Lizard May 16 '12 at 02:31
  • well said, Bill. Most books I buy are reference works, not novels. And though I rarely enter a physical store any more, I visit Amazon several times a week, actually more than I would in the past visit brick and mortar bookstores. My guess is that's the same as for many others. – jwenting May 16 '12 at 08:44
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    I think the association between "reading in the United States is in decline" and "reading books" isn't necessarily a good one anymore. I am constantly pouring over articles and technical texts; and on top of that you have all the websites and blogs that I follow -- but thinking back I don't think I've read a book cover to cover this year. – Chuu Sep 27 '14 at 14:12
  • "It's also worth noting that the more education you have received the more likely you are to read literature, which is the opposite of what was claimed by the Jenkins Group survey." I took the original stat to mean that it was 33%, but that includes people who went onto post secondary education While your graph obviously holds them as distinct populations. – Jonathon Oct 06 '15 at 01:33
  • Great answer, perhaps 43% of the books out there should not have been published. I have started and dropped some real stinkers over the last couple of years. – Pete B. May 23 '18 at 11:26
  • It is *theoretically* possible that 56% of individuals read a book but 80% of households did not, if you assume that reading households are much larger on average than non-reading households and have very high percentages of reading - though of course this is not a realistic interpretation of the data. – Ryan Jensen Jun 16 '23 at 17:31
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The Jenkins Group reading statistics have been apparently disowned by the group. Some of them were based on a variety of legitimate sources, including the Book Industry Study Group and U.S. News & World Reports per libereading, but things like calculating the percentage of high school graduates to never read another book for the rest of their lives is obviously only going to be a vague guess at best -- and one that isn't supported by any known research.

Some of the latest statistics for reading in children by other surveys are provided below.

Per Annika Bergström in 2014, research shows that there is a decline in book reading noticed within the last few decades in Europe and in the US.

  1. According to the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) in 2009, the percentage of Americans who read at least one book of fiction or nonfiction in the previous 12 months (outside of work or school requirements) decreased from the early 1990s to 2008, the time span for which data of this kind are available. Whereas in 1992 61% of Americans reported having read a book for pleasure during the previous year, in 2008 54% reported having done so. The SPPA findings make clear that age matters when it comes to reading rates.

The greatest decline in reading rates, 10 percentage points (approximately a 15% drop), occurred among adults ages 18–54. For each of the groups of older Americans examined here, the decline was not statistically significant. Taken as a whole, older Americans (55+) were just as likely to be book readers in 2008 as they were in 1992. Book reading in 2008 was more common in the United States than in such countries as Italy and Greece, but less so than in the Scandinavian nations of Finland and Sweden (the top-ranked country).

  1. According to the survey carried out by TNS Opinion & Social network in the then 27 Member States of the European Union and in Croatia between 26 April and 14 May 2013, “reading a book” is strongly predicated by the level of education of the respondent (managers have the highest book-reading frequency).

Reading a book was almost as popular, 68% having read a book at least once in the last year. There has also been a decline in reading books, with fewer respondents saying they had read at least one book in the last 12 months (down from 71% to 68%). In all EU countries (with the exception of Portugal) lack of time is given as the main reason for not reading more books in the last year.

Education appears to be the strongest predictor of reading, with 51% of respondents who had studied beyond the age of 19 and 48% of those still studying reading 5 or more books in a year. In some ways it is a little surprising that respondents still studying are not reading more; perhaps some of them spend a lot of time reading parts of books/textbooks, and they might not describe this as “reading a book” in the context of cultural practices. Predictably, managers and students were the occupational categories with the highest book-reading frequency; 59% of managers and 48% of students had read more than 5 books a year.

Lack of time is the most frequent reason given for not reading books more often by 25- 39 year-olds (56%). Respondents who left education at 15 or before give lack of interest as the main reason for not reading more (44%), while just 25% mention lack of time. Strikingly, at least 45% of all those leaving education after the age of 15 years of age say that lack of time is the most important reason for not reading more. It appears that those spending the most time in education believe that reading is a very important cultural activity and that lack of interest is a less acceptable reason for not reading than lack of time.

  1. Per estimates for September through May, 2003–07, the percentage of high school students in USA spending time for reading is low when compared to percentage of high school students spending time for other activities. Research shows that children who read frequently develop stronger reading skills.

  2. Per Christina Clark in 2015, levels of daily reading also continue to increase for children in UK.

Indeed, the increase in daily reading levels between 2013 and 2014 has been dramatic: 2014 saw an increase of 28.6% in the number of children and young people who read daily outside class, rising from 32.2% in 2013 to 41.4% in 2014. Only 1 in 7 (13.7%) rarely or never reads outside class. Young people who enjoy reading very much are three times as likely to read above the level expected for their age compared with young people who do not enjoy reading at all (34.9% vs. 10.7%). Similarly, young people who read outside class daily are five times as likely to read above the expected level for their age compared with young people who never read outside class (23.0% vs. 4.9%

Django Reinhardt
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pericles316
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  • Which source does show that "33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives"? I see none. – George Chalhoub Oct 06 '15 at 06:14
  • Already mentioned that in the answer that the calculation of probability in the claim '33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives' depends on various other factors such as education, age, time spent in reading outside class which is not measured in these surveys. Even your answer just mentions '36% of high school graduates didn't read at least one book in the past year' which is not related to the portion of the claim 'never read another book for the rest of their lives'. – pericles316 Oct 06 '15 at 06:19
  • There's clearly no way anyone can say the % of high school graduates who never read again. They'd have to wait 60+ years to get an accurate answer, and by then the data would be out of date. It seems hugely unlikely that 33% of people will never read again. Hugely. – Django Reinhardt Oct 07 '15 at 12:28
  • @DjangoReinhardt- Research through surveys only shows that there is a decline in book reading noticed within the last few decades in Europe and in the US. – pericles316 Oct 08 '15 at 11:43
  • @pericles316 Yes, but there is nothing here that even hints at providing an answer to the number of people who never read a book again. Even 54% only accounts *per year*. To be honest, I don't think such a number is even possible to estimate. You'd need a dedicated study over many years. – Django Reinhardt Oct 12 '15 at 12:10
  • @DjangoReinhardt-Doesnt the 7% decrease from 1991 to 2008 give a kind of speculative figure for decrease in reading habits of people? – pericles316 Oct 12 '15 at 12:22
  • @pericles316 No. It gives an insight into a trend which may or may not continue, and that trend has nothing to do with a single person *never reading a book again*. I'm not blaming you, your answer is great, I'm just pointing out that the original "Jenkins Group" claim (or any claim approaching it) is incalculable to the point of being absurd. – Django Reinhardt Oct 12 '15 at 21:20
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As for recent statistics from credible sources on this question of high school graduates and book reading, PewResearchCenter, a conductor of public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research was kind to publish this reading snapshot in January 16, 2014:

enter image description here

This 'reading snapshot' indicates that only 64% of high school graduates read at least one book in the past year, which means 36% of high school graduates didn't read at least one book in the past year.

George Chalhoub
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  • Interesting that the percentages peak for income levels $50,000-$74,999 and then drop slightly for incomes $75,000 and higher. Too busy to read perhaps? – tcrosley Oct 06 '15 at 09:23
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    @tcrosley-Reason from another survey, "Lack of time is the most frequent reason given for not reading books more often by 25- 39 year-olds (56%)" – pericles316 Oct 08 '15 at 03:58
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Another resource on reading statistics is the book Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals about Reading, Libraries, and Community by Catherine Ross, Lynne McKechnie, and Paulette Rothbauer. This book has data from a variety of sources grouped by age of reader. One idea I took from this book is when evaluating reading studies, you need to understand how they define reading and reading material. In our modern society, reading might not be declining. It may be that people are not reading as many books. Another important question is why are people not reading book and does this lack make our society dumb or are we evolving?

Konrad Rudolph
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    Could you please summarise the content of the book here? Also, please substantiate the other claims you’ve made. [As per the FAQ](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/5/82), **all claims on this site must be referenced**. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 30 '12 at 10:08
  • This does not actually answer the question. – March Ho Oct 15 '15 at 11:48