U.S. leisure reading hits all-time low

The share of Americans who read for pleasure on a given day has fallen by more than 30 percent since 2004, according to the latest Amer- ican Time Use Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statis- tics.

In 2004, roughly 28 percent of Americans 15 and older read for pleasure on a given day. Last year, the figure was about 19 percent.

That steep drop means that aggregate reading time among Americans has fallen, from an average of 23 minutes per person per day in 2004 to 17 minutes per per- son per day in 2017.

Reading declines are higher among men. The share of men reading for pleasure on any given day fell from 25 percent in 2004 to 15 percent in 2017, a drop of nearly 40 percent. The decline among women was a more modest 29 percent, from 31 percent in 2003 to 22 percent in 2017. poem or play in the prior

The survey data show year fell from 57 percent in declines in leisure reading 1982 to 43 percent in 2015. across all age levels. PercentSurvey data from the Pew age-wise, the likelihood of Research Center and Gallup reading declined the most have shown, meanwhile, among Americans ages 35 that the share of adults not to 44, with smaller declines reading any book in a given for both younger and older year nearly tripled between age groups. 1978 and 2014.

The American Time Use It’s tempting to blame the Survey is based on a nation- decline on the recent prolifally representative sample of eration of computers, cellabout 26,000 individuals. phones, video games and the Respondents answer ques- like. But the data don’t really tions and fill out detailed bear that out. For one, the time diaries about how they NEA data show reading has spent the previous day. been on the wane since at

The large sample size least the 1980s, well before means the survey’s time- Facebook and Fortnite. use estimates are extremely In the United States, the precise relative to traditional American Time Use Survey phone surveys, which may shows that while the average involve only 1,000 people reading time fell between or fewer. 2004 and 2017, the average

The findings on reading amount of time watching comport with some other TV rose. recent data on American In 2017, the average Amerireading trends. Numbers can spent more than 2 hours from the National Endow45 minutes per day watching ment for the Arts show that TV, every day of the year, or the share of adults reading at nearly 10 times the amount of least one novel, short story, time they read for pleasure.