I'm kind of shocked that 60% of all US adult citizens did report reading a book during the year. That seems much higher than I would have expected.

It is a self-reported measure, and it's phrased "read or listened to"--I don't normally think of "listening to audiobooks" when I think about reading, and I can imagine how that might broaden the pool. Other sources (e.g. the NEA survey at [0]) seem to put print book readership closer to 50%.

Though at least one survey [1] points out the wide range of genres that count as books for this purpose: manga, the Bible/Torah/Quran, cookbooks...

[0] https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-... [1] https://gitnux.org/readership-statistics/

What’s the title for? Is it about “reading” or is it about “books” ?

A lot of people who say they “read books” really mean they bought one or checked it out from the library, then only dipped into it here and there, maybe a few paragraphs at a time.

I haven’t read a proper book cover to cover in years, probably not since high school. But I do read a lot every single day, either for my job or because I genuinely want to grow professionally. I’ll also read a few chapters from books friends or coworkers recommend, especially the parts that seem most relevant. I just don’t really see why I need to finish the whole thing if I’m already getting what I came for.

My parents, meanwhile, will read the same books over and over again, cover to cover, every year.

I don't buy that anywhere near that many people read a book in 2025. People lie and say they read because they want to sound smarter and more cultured.

1 in 5 Americans is functionally illiterate so.... yeah. There is no way this is true.

I read one book in 2025. Of course I read every day: news, documentation, emails and other messages, etc. It's probably the activity I spend more time doing than anything else.

> don't buy that anywhere near that many people read a book in 2025

EDIT: Nvm

That's the opposite of what their age stats show

I admit I have not properly read a single book in a couple of years.

These days when it comes to technical stuff I much more prefer to fill in gaps by reading articles or documentation. Technical books are so long it feels like authors are paid by words.

And when it comes to fiction I have really leaned into audiobooks. My eyes are too tired from computer work, and I can combine audio with other activities like jogging or cooking.

There are some "technical" audiobooks as well, but only a small category of technical books makes sense in the audio format.

> 8 Books - Average number of books Americans read in 2025. However, the median American only read 2 books, showing that heavy readers significantly increase the overall average.

I don't know, my reaction is "wow, Americans truly love reading," or alternatively, "they really like to boast their numbers even in anonymous surveys."

Even if you only read fiction, 8 books are like 500k to 100k words. That's a lot of words!

I just scrolled through my Libby history to check. I checked out 25 books in 2025. Several of them I didn't finish, so the number is closer to 15 completed books, but that's only though Libby. I also finished an entire fiction series that wasn't available on Libby, which was an additional 7 books.

Series is really what makes the number so high IMO. I read a lot of fanasy/sci-fi which is often a lot of trilogies. And it may seem like a lot but that was spread across an entire year. I often read a few chapters before bed, but it often depends on how hooked I am on the book, I make more time for it when I'm more hooked on a book, or on a deadline to return the book to the library.

I suspect audiobooks helps carry the number higher as well. Its a lot easier to "read" a book when you can do it while doing other things. Although I prefer to sit down and dedicate time for e-books, I do listen to some audiobooks as well.

Well, some of the words are duplicates.

My family is doing our part to keep the average up (despite me being part of the family). I read one book last year, and it wasn't so much a single story as a collection of short non-fiction stories. I've read various chapters of some business books. But most of my reading is shorter form content like on here or articles.

But! We take our kids to the library every couple of weeks, and while we do let them check out Nintendo games, they also will each pick a stack of books. So my kids are going through 4-8 books a month. And my wife is part of a book club at the library so she's doing 8-10 in a year at least.

But for myself, I just have a hard time sitting down to do it. By the time I'm done with work and chores, it's late at night, and my brain barely has enough power to handle a TV show.

How do all y'all readers with young kids do it? How do you find the time?

I hear audiobooks work well

Does reading to a toddler count? If it does, I'm bringing up the mean to say the least.

I think we should get double credit for every reading of Goodnight Moon.

I assume you know, by now, that everyone poops

I have never been more certain.

3 in 5 actually seems pretty high, in particular if they really did read a complete book. I tend to only start and never finish them.

Aren't 1 out of 5 Americans functionally illiterate? [1] There is no way this is correct.

[1] https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-liter...

Yes they are very illiterate, especially in math; of which you are an excellent example.

What is going on with the quality of the comments on HN? I could have never predicted these comments here 10 years ago.

It’s almost like they’re bragging about not reading

4 in 5 tech dorks didn't had enough outdoor time in 2025

What fraction of Americans are capable of reading a book (i.e. not functionally illiterate)?

4 in 5: https://www.nu.edu/blog/49-adult-literacy-statistics-and-fac...

> 21% of U.S. adults are classified as functionally illiterate, unable to complete basic reading tasks.

Geez, that's a high number.

It includes the president

I am in the "did not read a single book" bucket, and have been for many years. I just don't like reading books, and never have.

More surprised that 3 did

That's actually better than I feared.

I'd count an audiobook as a book. I'd count something published online in the vague shape of a book as a book (e.g. if you read a story or a book-style non-fiction work published electronically). I would not count "news", though, for instance.

Whether you read on a paper book or on an e-reader, a full book is much deeper than just a magazine or news article.

Somehow I thought it would have been lesss...

I am also surprised it's so low (the number who haven't read). I would have expected 3 in 5 or even 4 in 5 americans to have not read a single book in 2025. I wonder if these stats include "tried to finish a book (and failed)" rather than actual completion stats.

Maybe it's 1 readers, 2 honest people, and 2 people who preferred to lie than confess they didn't read a single book.

Parents reading books to kids, students reading books for classes, and people who end up reading at least one book a year for work (many teachers or professors, for instance) set a fairly-high lower bound on this.

Much of the rest is people who exclusively read very easy books from one or two genres (“romance”, true crime, airport thriller/mystery, young-adult fantasy, and self-help/business-guru, mostly). That’s especially going to dominate the shelves of the set of folks with books-read counts far higher than one per year. Whether that crowd counts much toward a measure of the exercise of quality, general literacy, is a judgement call, but those readers are the engine of what little remains of the market for new books.

(There’s a niche market that’s commercially viable that involves books laser-focused at being optioned for TV or movies, but it’s as cliquish as you’d expect and hard to break into, and of course other genres still support a tiny number of super-stars)

i'm actually surprised it's only 2 in 5