Reading for pleasure is going out of style

Data: Bone, et al., 2025, "The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey"; Note: Excludes 2020 because data collection was paused for part of the year. Chart: Axios VisualsPacking a few beach reads ahead of the holiday this weekend? You're one of a diminishing few.The share of Americans who read for pleasure has been falling for the past two decades, finds a new comprehensive analysis of Census Bureau data on time use.Why it matters: Reading is pretty great — with benefits for literacy, logical reasoning, your job prospects and health, the researchers point out. Plus, it's fun.By the numbers: 26% of those surveyed read for pleasure on an average day back in 2003.By 2023, the number had fallen 10 points to 16%.Between the lines: There's a consistent gender gap — 18.6% of women read for pleasure in 2023 compared to 13.7% for men.Those with postgraduate degrees are more likely to be readers, as are people over age 66.The intrigue: The researchers were somewhat surprised because the data defined reading to include books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks and e-readers.The bottom line: People only have so much leisure time, the researchers note. And in this "attention economy," books are taking a hit.

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