Pew Research: Young Americans and Women Read More
A Pew Research Center survey shows young Americans, women, and people with higher education and income are most likely to read books compared with other groups. The patterns hold for both print and e-books.
The data measured who has read at least one book (whole or part) in the previous year, how many they’ve read, and in what format.
Survey Results
Here are the highlights of the survey results:
- Young Adults: Eighty percent of young adults, ages 18 to 29, have read a book in the past year compared with 71 percent of adults in the age range of 30 to 49, and 68 percent of those who are 50 to 64.
- Women: The average woman read 14 books in the past 12 months compared with nine for the average man.
- Highly Educated: The typical college graduate or someone with an advanced degree read an average of 17 books in the previous year compared with nine for high school grads and three for those who did not graduate from high school.
- Higher Income: Those who reported household income of $75,000 or more read 17 books on the average, compared with seven for those in the bracket of $30,000 or below.
- Print Books: Sixty-three percent of survey participants read at least one print book in the past year, compared with 71 percent in 2011.
- E-books: Twenty-seven percent of survey participants read an e-book in the past 12 months, up from 17 percent in 2011.
You can read more about this Pew Research survey results here.
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