The Top 10 Reading
Statistics and Facts. The source of the following is https://comfyliving.net/reading-statistics/ 

·       
43 million US
adults possess low literacy skills.

·       
People aged 15–44
in the US spend 10 minutes or less per day reading.

·       
27% of adults in
the US didn’t read a book in 2018.

·       
The United States
literacy rate positions the country as number 28 in the World Factbook.

·       
6 additional
minutes of reading per day can significantly improve kids’ reading performance.

·       
Children who read
at least 20 minutes a day are exposed to almost 2 million words per year.

·       
One out of every
five children in the UK can’t read at a satisfactory level by age 11.

·       
Reading could
help reduce mental decline in old age by up to 32%.

·       
Reading fiction
can make you a better decision-maker.

·       
Reading increases
emotional intelligence, and consequently, your career outlook.

Statistics About Reading in
the United States

In this section, we’ll be
looking at literacy rates and reading habits in the US specifically.

1. 43 million US adults
possess low literacy skills. (NCES)

Although the literacy rate
in America is 99%, only 79% have a literacy skill level of 2 or higher, according
to PIAAC (Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies). In
practice, this means around 21% have difficulty completing “tasks that require
comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level
inferences.”

2. People
aged 15–44 in the US spend 10 minutes or less per day reading. (Bureau of Labor
Statistics)

The time spent reading outside of work and school
depends significantly on the age group we choose to observe. People aged 75 and
older read over four times as much per day (44 minutes) as the younger
generations.

3. There has been a decline
in reading time among Americans from 23 minutes to 17 minutes per day.
(Washington Post)

Interestingly enough, 17
minutes per day is also the amount of fitness activity that an average US adult
gets. Despite the benefits of reading, statistics show we’re reading less and
less every year. From 2004 to 2017, the average reading time of Americans
dropped by six minutes.

Also, the percentage of
Americans reading for pleasure on a given day plummeted from 28% to just 19%.
Some age groups showed a greater decline than others, but none of them recorded
an increase in reading time over the analyzed period.

4. Teenage reading
statistics show over 80% of them don’t read for pleasure on a daily basis.
(APA)

Research from the American
Psychological Association confirms what you probably already suspected.
Teenagers spend way more time on social media than they do reading.

But other media saw dips as
well. From 2010 to 2018, teenagers spent less time reading and watching TV.
Digital media is displacing most of the other leisure activities that used to
be typical for the age group.

5. 27% of adults in the US
didn’t read a book in 2018. (Pew Research Center)

Book reading statistics show
adults without higher education are the least likely to have read a book. 44%
of Americans with a high school degree or less surveyed in early 2019 hadn’t
read a book in the last 12 months. Education level seems to be strongly
correlated with time spent reading.

In contrast, 92% of
college-educated adults in the US reported reading a book during the same
period. Reading habits also seem to increase in lockstep with household income.

6. The average number of
books read per year by an American is 12.(Pew Research Center)

If you’re wondering how many
books the average American reads annually, this is your answer. Although some
of these facts about reading may appear grim, Americans still read a fair
number of books. The average for women in the US is 14 books in a year, while
the median across all populations is four per year.

So, if you read more than
four books a year, you’re reading more than half the country.

7. In terms of literacy
rate, the USA ranks 125th out of 194 nations. (World Atlas)

This is concerning given that the US is
considered a first-world country. Literacy rates are difficult to standardize,
and the most widely accepted definition is the percentage of the population
over 15 who can read and write. Some sources rank the US much lower based on
reading behaviours and supporting readers’ resources, such as libraries. 

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Originally Published on https://boomersnotsenior.blogspot.com/

Royce Shook Blogger

I served as a teacher, a teacher on Call, a Department Head, a District Curriculum, Specialist, a Program Coordinator, and a Provincial Curriculum Coordinator over a forty year career. In addition, I was the Department Head for Curriculum and Instruction, as well as a professor both online and in person at the University of Phoenix (Canada) from 2000-2010.

I also worked with Special Needs students. I gave workshops on curriculum development and staff training before I fully retired

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