Trends in Book and Literary Reading
Updated August 5, 2020 |
Infoplease Staff
The percentage of adult Americans reading literature has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years. “Literature” includes novels, short stories, plays, and poetry but not works of nonfiction.
| U.S. adult population | Rate of decline 1992–2002 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 1992 | 2002 | ||
| Number of literary readers (in millions) | 96 | 100 | 96 | |
| Percentage reading literature | 56.9% | 54.0% | 46.7% | –14% |
| Percentage reading any book | n.a. | 60.9 | 56.6 | –7 |
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, June 2004.
| Trends in Reading and Publishing | Family Reading, 1993–2001 |
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