Fewer Americans are opening a book for fun each day, with reading for pleasure in the United States down 40% over the past 20 years, a new study finds.
Researchers from University College London and the University of Florida analyzed surveys from more than 230,000 Americans aged 15 and older between 2003 and 2023, tracking their daily reading habits.
Results, published in the journal iScience on Wednesday, showed the share of people who picked up a book, magazine or e-reader every day dropped about 3% per year. Reading with children was also rare, the study found, with only 2% of adults reporting doing so on average every day.
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However, those who did read spent more time doing so, averaging more than 90 minutes daily.
“For me, one of the most important takeaways of this study is awareness of how little reading for children is happening,” Jill Sonke, one of the study’s lead authors as well as director of research initiatives and a research professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, told ABC News. “As a mother, reading to my children was a really important time for bonding as well as for relaxation and for stimulating my children’s interest in reading and their imagination and creativity.”
Olga Pankova/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images – PHOTO: Stock photo of a woman reading a book.
The study also found that reading declined more sharply among Black Americans, those with less education or lower incomes, and people in rural areas, with gaps widening over the 20-year study period.
The researchers speculated that the drop is likely tied to the rise of digital media, including social platforms, streaming and online browsing.
“There’s a correlation between time spent on digital media and reductions in reading time,” Sonke said. “It does seem logical that the ways in which digital media compete for our time would be a factor in these declines in reading.”
The authors cautioned that less reading could affect health, well-being and literacy. Reading has been linked to stronger language skills, reasoning and empathy, they said.
“I think it’s important for people to understand that reading for pleasure is actually a health promoting activity,” Sonke said. “We know that participating in the arts is a health behavior because it statistically results in improved health outcomes including well-being, social cohesion, mental health.”
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The study authors say that national strategies often focus mainly on children. The authors suggested that adult reading habits also deserve attention, especially given their impact on health and well-being.
The National Literacy Trust, an independent charity based in London that promotes literacy, advises setting aside 10 minutes before bed, carrying a book or e-reader during commutes and making reading a shared family activity. Even small changes can help bring reading back into daily life, the group notes.
Raihan El-Naas, MD is a board-certified internal medicine physician and current endocrinology fellow at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
