Special Post - "Reading Trends in America"

Montgomery, David.  "Most Americans Didn't Read Many Books in 2025." YouGov/USA (https://tinyurl.com/34vcp8tw). December 31, 2025. Online.

First Sentences:

Six in 10 Americans (59%) say they read at least one book in 2025, a new YouGov survey finds. That's in line with similar YouGov surveys in 2024 and 2023. Most Americans who did read books only finished a handful of books, while a minority of Americans were plowing through the pages.

 

Description:

Just a short post to bring to your attention the recent annual survey conducted by YouGov regarding the reading habits of Americans in 2025. I found some of this data encouraging, while other items worrisome:

• Besides the 40% of Americans who didn't read any books in 2025, another 27% read one to four books. And 13% read five to nine books. That leaves 19% of Americans who read 10 or more books, including 9% who read 10 to 19 books, 6% who read 20 to 49 books, and 4% who say they read 50 or more books; 

• Americans 65 and older read significantly more books (12.1) than those 45 to 64 (6.4), 30 to 44 (8.2), and 18 to 29 (5.8);

• 46% of Americans read at least one physical book, 24% read at least one digital book, and 23% listened to at least one audio book;

• The most popular genre of books that Americans read in 2025 was mystery and crime: 35% of Americans who read at least one book read a mystery or crime novel. Other top genres are history (30%), biography and memoir (27%), thrillers (23%), fantasy (23%), and romance (23%);

• Half of Americans don't have library cards. Many of those who do rarely or never use library services;

• One in five Americans (20%) say they own between one and 10 physical books, while 14% own between 11 and 25 books, and 13% between 26 and 50. Overall, counting the 9% who say they own no physical books, at least 69% of Americans own no more than 100 books.

There is plenty of additional interesting data in this study, including how many books different demographic groups (age, sex, education, income, etc.) own, how they sort them, and what subjects each group reads. The YouGov data collection method is carefully explained and there are color charts and graphs to further clarify their findings.

 

Its a fascinating data collection about how our country reads, so please click here to learn more. You might be surprised at what you find.

 

U.S. Reading Survey article - https://tinyurl.com/34vcp8tw

Complete U.S. Reading Survey data document - https://tinyurl.com/4e9fws6d

About YouGov - https://yougov.com/en-us

[from their website]

YouGov is an international online research data and analytics technology group. Our mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world thinks. Our purpose is to give our global community a voice by collecting, measuring and analyzing their opinions and behaviors and reporting the findings accurately and free from bias.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 Dirda, Michael. Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books.

History of one of the greatest libraries of the current age, The United State Library of Congress. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]