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27% of Americans Have Not Read a Book in The Past Year (That Year Was 2018)

Earlier today a certain blog known for not crediting their sources reported that a quarter of Americans had not read a book in the past year.  While that factoid was true at one point, it is now so old that it is a historical fact, not current news.

The uncredited sources for this factoid is a Pew Research Center article from September which is based on a survey conducted in January and February 2019.

So basically, 27% of Americans had not read a book in 2018. And as you would expect, the data on the non-readers corresponds to the survey subject’s educational level and socioeconomic status:

Several demographic traits correlate with non-book reading, Pew Research Center surveys have found. For instance, adults with a high school diploma or less are far more likely than those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree to report not reading books in any format in the 12 months before the survey (44% vs. 8%). Adults with lower levels of educational attainment are also among the least likely to own smartphones, a device that saw a substantial increase in usage for reading e-books from 2011 to 2016. (College-educated adults are more likely to own these devices and use them to read e-books.)

Adults whose annual household income is $30,000 or less are more likely than those living in households earning $75,000 or more a year to be non-book readers (36% vs. 14%). Hispanic (40%) and black (33%) adults are more likely than whites (22%) to report not having read a book in the past 12 months. But there are differences between Hispanics born inside and outside the United States: 56% of foreign-born Hispanics report not having read a book, compared with 27% of Hispanics born in the U.S.

 

image by freestocks.org via Flickr

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Comments


Disgusting Dude February 11, 2020 um 10:32 am

As if books were free and everybody has equal access to all books.
And they still refuse to distinguish between students and professionals, whose book reading is mandated, and those who choose to read willingly.
Instead, they pretend that the market for books is 75% of the population.
Meaningless numbers.


27% of Americans Have Not Read a Book in The Past Year (That Year Was 2018) | Experimental Space February 17, 2020 um 3:34 am

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