The Pew Research Center conducted a recent poll on the reading habits of Americans and their preferred vehicles. The results might surprise you. The Digital Reader brought this interesting information to our attention in their article, “One in Five Americans Have Listened to an Audiobook, One in Four Have Read an eBook.”
Let’s start with the basics. About three-quarters of Americans have read a book in the past 12 months in any format. This percentage has remained largely unchanged since 2012. Print books also remain the most popular format for reading and e-book readers stay steady at 26%. Both of these are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016. However, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, going from 14% to 18%.
Some statisticians might project that people who read a lot of books prefer e-books in comparison to people that read only a few books per year prefer print. However, there are no numbers to confirm that assumption.
Melody K. Smith
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