US survey finds drop in reading participation

In the US, a new report from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) found reading rates among adults declined over the past five years, reports Publishers Weekly.

The report found that in the 12 months to July 2022, only 48.5% of adults read one or more books for pleasure, down from 52.7% in its prior survey in 2017. Between the NEA’s 2012 and 2017 surveys, this number fell by just under two percentage points. The report was based on a survey of 40,718 adults.

The decline in reading between 2017 and 2022 was similar for men and women, although women (56.6%) are still reading more than men (40%). The biggest decline in reading rates was among older readers, with only 43.6% of those aged 55–64 reading at least one book, down from 53.6% in 2017. The percentage of younger readers aged 18–34 held steady.

There was a particular decline in adult readers of novels and short stories, with 37.6% of readers having read a novel or short story, down four percentage points from 2017. ‘It is sobering to reflect that our stretches of isolation and self-quarantining were unaccompanied by a boom in reading novels or short stories,’ the study authors wrote.

The NEA’s director of research and analysis Sunil Iyengar said the 37.6% participation rate in reading novels or short stories ‘was the lowest ever’ since the surveys began in 1992. ‘It is pretty stark,’ Iyengar said. ‘The persistent decline in fiction reading is worrisome, because we know how much reading can lead to broader types of cultural and civic participation, and also because reading builds imagination, empathy, close attention, and tolerance of ambiguity.’

In September, Creative Australia released results from its National Arts Participation Survey, which showed reading rates had declined slightly since 2019.

Category: International news