Book readership in the United States varies by format, age, education, gender, race and the number of books read. In October 2025, 75% of U.S. adults read at least one book in any format during the previous 12 months, while 25% read no books. Print remained the most common format: 64% read a print book, compared with 31% who read an e-book and 26% who listened to an audiobook. These measures overlap because one person may use more than one format. Unless otherwise stated, the figures below describe U.S. adults and a 12-month lookback period.
Contents
- Book readership by format
- Who reads books in the United States
- Reading by age and education
- How many books Americans read
- Book clubs and participation
- Longer-term overall and fiction trends
- Fiction readership by gender
Book readership by format
The Pew Research Center report on book formats and book clubs shows that print readership has remained ahead of digital and audio readership in every listed year. The results refer to whether adults used a format at least once in the preceding 12 months; they are not mutually exclusive shares.
| Measurement period | E-book | Audiobook | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 72% | 17% | 11% |
| 2012 | 66% | 23% | 13% |
| 2014 | 69% | 28% | 14% |
| 2015 | 63% | 27% | 12% |
| 2016 | 65% | 28% | 14% |
| 2018 | 67% | 26% | 18% |
| 2019 | 65% | 25% | 20% |
| 2021 | 65% | 30% | 23% |
| October 2025 | 64% | 31% | 26% |
In 2011, 72% of adults read a print book, 17% read an e-book and 11% listened to an audiobook. In 2012, the corresponding figures were 66%, 23% and 13%. Print readership reached 69% in 2014, while e-book readership reached 28% and audiobook listening reached 14%. In 2015, the figures were 63% for print, 27% for e-books and 12% for audiobooks.
The later observations show a larger role for audio and a sustained, though lower, level of e-book use. In 2016, 65% read print, 28% read e-books and 14% listened to audiobooks. In 2018, the shares were 67%, 26% and 18%. In 2019, they were 65%, 25% and 20%. By 2021, print stood at 65%, e-books at 30% and audiobooks at 23%. The October 2025 results were 64% for print, 31% for e-books and 26% for audiobooks.
These percentages should not be added to estimate the percentage of adults who read any book. A reader can be counted in print, e-book and audiobook categories during the same period. The measures also differ from the separate “at least one book in any format” measure used for demographic comparisons below.
Who reads books in the United States
The Pew Research Center demographic chart reports the share of adults who read at least one book in any format during the 12 months before October 2025. Overall, 75% of U.S. adults met that definition.
Gender differences were visible in the October 2025 results. Seventy-eight percent of women read at least one book, compared with 71% of men. The same source reports that 77% of White adults read at least one book in any format. The shares were 69% among Black adults, 70% among Hispanic adults and 70% among Asian adults.
The figures describe group-level readership during one specified period. They do not identify why the rates differ, and they should not be treated as measures of literary quality, frequency, or the number of books completed. A person who read one book and a person who read twenty-one books are both included in the “at least one” category.
Reading by age and education
Age differences were relatively narrow compared with the education differences reported for October 2025. Among adults ages 18–29, 78% read at least one book in any format during the previous 12 months. The share was 76% for adults ages 30–49, 71% for adults ages 50–64 and 73% for adults ages 65 and older.
Education showed a wider spread. Sixty percent of adults with a high-school education or less read at least one book. The share rose to 78% among adults with some college experience and to 88% among adults with a college degree. All three education figures use the same any-format, previous-12-month measure as the overall and demographic figures.
| U.S. adult group | Read at least one book in any format |
|---|---|
| Overall | 75% |
| Ages 18–29 | 78% |
| Ages 30–49 | 76% |
| Ages 50–64 | 71% |
| Ages 65 and older | 73% |
| High-school education or less | 60% |
| Some college experience | 78% |
| College degree | 88% |
The age and education categories are not a single ranking of individual readers. They describe different groupings, and the source does not establish that education causes a particular reading outcome. The clearest descriptive difference in these figures is the 28-percentage-point spread between adults with a college degree and those with a high-school education or less.
How many books Americans read
Format statistics show how adults accessed books, while reading-volume statistics show how many books they reported reading. In October 2025, 38% of U.S. adults read one to five books during the previous 12 months. Another 13% read six to 10 books, 10% read 11 to 20 books and 14% read more than 20 books. Twenty-five percent read no books.
The categories cover the reported distribution for that period and sum to 100%. They should not be converted into an average number of books: the “more than 20” category has no upper bound in the supplied measure, and the one-to-five, six-to-10 and 11-to-20 groups contain ranges rather than exact counts.
The distribution also provides a useful distinction between occasional and intensive readership. The largest single category was one to five books, at 38%. The share reporting six or more books is represented by the three higher-volume categories: 13% reading six to 10, 10% reading 11 to 20 and 14% reading more than 20. The 25% reporting no books is separate from all four reading-volume categories.
Book clubs and participation
Book-club participation was less common than book reading itself. In October 2025, 7% of U.S. adults participated in a book club during the previous 12 months. The same Pew Research Center source reports participation among 10% of women and 5% of men.
The book-club measure is an activity measure, not a format measure. It does not say whether a club used print books, e-books or audiobooks, and it does not indicate how often a club met. Likewise, the gender-specific percentages describe participation within each gender group; they are not shares of all book-club participants.
Taken together with the reading-volume figures, the results describe two different forms of engagement. A person may read books without joining a club, and club participation may involve discussion of a book that was read in a format not captured by a single-format question. The reported 7% overall participation rate therefore should not be compared directly with the 64% print, 31% e-book or 26% audiobook format shares as though they were equivalent measures.
Longer-term overall and fiction trends
The National Endowment for the Arts analysis reports a separate historical series for reading during the previous year. In that series, 54.6% of U.S. adults read at least one book of any type in 2012. The share was 52.7% in 2017 and 48.5% in 2022.
The same analysis reports fiction readership using the narrower definition of reading a novel or short story in the previous year. Fiction readership was 45.2% of U.S. adults in 2012, 41.8% in 2017 and 37.6% in 2022.
| Historical measure | 2012 | 2017 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| At least one book of any type | 54.6% | 52.7% | 48.5% |
| Novel or short story | 45.2% | 41.8% | 37.6% |
This series and the October 2025 Pew figures should be kept distinct. They come from different sources, measurement periods and question definitions. The historical series identifies adults who read during the previous year, while the October 2025 demographic figures identify adults who read at least one book in any format during the previous 12 months. The supplied figures do not establish that the series are directly comparable across sources.
Fiction readership by gender
The NEA analysis also separates fiction readership by gender. In 2012, 54.6% of U.S. women read a novel or short story in the previous year, compared with 35.1% of U.S. men. In 2017, the corresponding shares were 50% for women and 33% for men. In 2022, 46.9% of women and 27.7% of men read a novel or short story.
| Year | Women reading a novel or short story | Men reading a novel or short story |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 54.6% | 35.1% |
| 2017 | 50% | 33% |
| 2022 | 46.9% | 27.7% |
The gender-specific fiction figures are proportions within the women’s and men’s groups, not a percentage split of the fiction-reading population. They also measure novels or short stories, so they should not be presented as all-book readership or as a proxy for print, digital or audio format use. The 2012, 2017 and 2022 observations show the reported historical rates for each group; they do not independently verify any older underlying survey results.