Digital vs. Paper

Last week, Pew Research Center issued a report on America’s reading habits.  The study found that 65% of Americans read a print book in the last year. Pew found that 28% of Americans read an e-book and 14% listened to a audio-book in the previous year.

Although the share of e-book readers on tablets more than tripled since 2011 and the number of readers on smartphones has more than doubled over that time, e-book readership only increased from 17% in 2011 to 28% in 2014 and has not changed in the last two years.

Other highlights from Pew’s report Book Reading 2016:

  • Americans read an average of twelve books per year
  • Twenty-eight percent of Americans read books in both digital and print formats
  • Age does not seem to matter, and 6% of 18-29 year-olds only read digital books, 7% of 30-49  year-olds, and  5% of those 50 and older
  • Young people read more than seniors. Eighty percent of 18-29 year-olds read a book in the past year compared with 67% of those 65 and older.

For more information, see Book Reading 2016.

About Allen Mesch

Allen is an author, educator, and historian. He has written six books: The Analyst; Teacher of Civil War Generals; Your Affectionate Father, Charles F. Smith; Charles A. Marvin - "One Year. Six Months, and Eleven Days", Preparing for Disunion, and Ebenezer Allen - Statesman, Entrepreneur, and Spy. He taught classes on the American Civil War at Collin College. He has visited more than 130 Civil War sites and given presentations at Civil War Roundtables.
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