Nearly 1/3 Of Adults Didn't Read A Book Last Year

A new survey on American reading habits reveals a statistic that's all too real: 27 percent of U.S. adults didn't read a single book within the last 12 months.

The survey, which was conducted by Pew Research, asked adults if they had read a book in any format. The number of people who answered "yes" has fallen in recent years, from 79 percent in 2011 to 72 percent in 2015.

Though the survey reports that the average American adult read 12 books in the last year — a number that seems to be skewed high by book lovers, as the median is only 4.

The news comes on the heels of mixed information about the book publishing industry. While print seems to be enjoying a resurgence, ebook sales are waning. That’s reflected in the survey data, too: 63 percent of respondents said they read a print book during the last 12 months, but ebook readership flattened during the same period.

In all honesty, I would've expected the percentage of non-readers to be higher. And it could be high because of self reporting. It may be that the non-readers wish they had read a book, so they said "yes."

I would have guessed the stat was somewhere closer to this.

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