Pew: 69% of Americans read a print book in 2013, 28% read an e-book, but only 4% went exclusively electronic
During 2013, 69 percent of Americans read a book in printed form, 28 percent read an e-book, and 14 percent listened to an audiobook. While the proportion of Americans who read e-books is growing, few have completely replaced print books for electronic versions.
The latest figures come from Pew‘s ongoing Internet & American Life survey. Here’s the breakdown over the last three years (the “2014″ is a typo that should say “2013″):
As you can see, while e-books are becoming more popular, print is still king. Most people who read e-books also read print books, and only 4 percent of readers were “e-book only” in 2013.
Audiobook listeners were found to have the most diverse reading habits overall, while fewer print readers consume books in other formats. Overall, 76 percent of adults read a book in some format over the previous 12 months.
The mean number of books read or listened to in the past year was 12 and the median number was five (meaning that half of adults read more than five books and half read fewer). The median is a better measure of what the “typical” American’s reading habits look like since the mean can be skewed by a relatively small number of very avid readers.
More to follow.
