Fiction readership changes noticeably by age, format, and reading environment. U.S. adult novel-or-short-story readership declined from 45.2% in 2012 to 37.6% in 2022, while UK children’s 2025 fiction reading was more common in print than on screen across every reported age group. The measures below are survey estimates, not population counts, and they refer to different countries, age bands, formats, and time periods.
Contents
- Adult fiction readership over time
- Adult reading measures by age
- Children’s fiction reading in print
- Children’s fiction reading on screen
- Gender, household access, and school-meal differences
- Enjoyment, reading frequency, and book access
Adult fiction readership over time
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) measured whether U.S. adults had read a novel or short story during the previous 12 months. The share was 45.2% in 2012, 41.8% in 2017, and 37.6% in 2022. These figures describe voluntary reading and are not the same as the share reading any kind of book.
The 2012–2022 change was a 17% decline in the adult novel-or-short-story readership rate, according to the NEA’s comparison. Between 2017 and 2022, the rate fell by 4.2 percentage points. In other words, the long-term series records a lower share of adults reporting fiction reading in 2022 than in either earlier survey year.
The NEA’s 2022 results also show why format matters. When listening through streaming, broadcasts, or recordings was included, the U.S. adult audience for novels or short stories reached 43%. That compares with 38% who reported reading the form. The figures come from Arts Participation Patterns in 2022, while the format comparison is discussed in A Time of Hope and Worry: Unpacking the 2022 NEA Survey Results about Reading.
The distinction is important when interpreting age statistics. A reading-only measure can understate the audience for fiction if a person listens instead. Conversely, the figures should not be combined with children’s results or treated as a single worldwide readership rate: the NEA series covers U.S. adults, the previous 12 months, and a specific survey definition.
Adult reading measures by age
The NEA’s broader 2022 measure counted adults who read books, novels, short stories, poetry, or plays, or listened to audiobooks. It is therefore a useful age-banded reading measure around fiction readership, but it is not a fiction-only percentage.
| U.S. adult age group | Combined reading measure, 2022 |
|---|---|
| 18–24 | 55.0% |
| 25–34 | 60.2% |
| 35–44 | 59.5% |
| 45–54 | 53.6% |
| 55–64 | 49.8% |
| 65–74 | 55.7% |
| 75 and older | 54.0% |
The highest reported share was among adults ages 25–34, at 60.2%, followed closely by ages 35–44, at 59.5%. The lowest was among ages 55–64, at 49.8%. Adults ages 18–24 recorded 55.0%, while the figures were 53.6% for ages 45–54, 55.7% for ages 65–74, and 54.0% for ages 75 and older. These are from the NEA’s By All Means, the Arts: A Full Report of the 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.
The recent age-specific changes are more mixed than the overall adult fiction trend. From 2017 to 2022, the combined measure fell by 2.7 percentage points for ages 18–24. It rose by 1.3 points for ages 25–34 and by 0.3 points for ages 35–44. Those changes should not be used to infer changes for the older age groups because the supplied age-specific comparisons do not report equivalent differences for them.
The table and the long-term fiction series answer different questions. The first asks whether an adult engaged with a broad group of literary forms or audiobooks; the second asks about reading a novel or short story. A person can therefore be represented in one measure without being represented in the other.
Children’s fiction reading in print
The National Literacy Trust’s 2025 UK survey measured children’s reading in their free time. More than 70% of children ages 5–8 reported reading fiction in print. The share was 56.4% among ages 8–11, 49.8% among ages 11–14, and 40.5% among ages 14–16. Among young people ages 16–18, 47.9% reported reading fiction or short stories on paper.
For the comparable monthly measure, 49.3% of UK children and young people ages 8–18 read fiction in print at least monthly in 2025. The same measure was 59.5% in 2017, a decline of 10.2 percentage points by 2025. The source is the National Literacy Trust report Trends in children and young people’s reading in print and digital formats.
| UK age group | Fiction or short stories on paper in free time, 2025 |
|---|---|
| 5–8 | More than 70% |
| 8–11 | 56.4% |
| 11–14 | 49.8% |
| 14–16 | 40.5% |
| 16–18 | 47.9% |
The pattern is not a simple straight line across all age bands. The reported share is highest among the youngest children, falls through ages 14–16, and then is higher among ages 16–18 than among ages 14–16. Because the first figure is reported as “more than 70%,” it should not be treated as an exact percentage or used to calculate an unsupported average.
Print and digital reading are separate measures in this survey. The 49.3% monthly print figure should therefore not be added to the digital percentage to estimate a total audience. Some children may use both formats, while others may use only one.
Children’s fiction reading on screen
Digital fiction reading was less common than print fiction reading in every UK age band reported for 2025, but the age pattern moved differently. In free time, 19.6% of children ages 5–8 reported reading fiction digitally. The shares were 20.9% for ages 8–11, 21.5% for ages 11–14, 23.5% for ages 14–16, and 29.4% for ages 16–18.
The monthly digital-fiction measure for UK 8–18-year-olds was 22.2% in 2025, compared with 19.9% in 2017. That represents an increase of 2.3 percentage points. The increase in monthly digital fiction occurred during the same period in which monthly print-fiction readership fell from 59.5% to 49.3%.
The format comparison is clearest when the age bands are kept together:
| UK age group | Print fiction in free time | Digital fiction in free time |
|---|---|---|
| 5–8 | More than 70% | 19.6% |
| 8–11 | 56.4% | 20.9% |
| 11–14 | 49.8% | 21.5% |
| 14–16 | 40.5% | 23.5% |
| 16–18 | 47.9% | 29.4% |
This table compares the two reported formats within the same survey, but “print” and “digital” remain distinct behaviors. It does not establish that digital reading replaced print reading for individual children, and it does not measure the number of books completed.
Gender, household access, and school-meal differences
In the 2025 UK survey, 43.4% of boys ages 8–18 read fiction or short stories on paper in their free time, compared with 55.4% of girls. On screen, the corresponding figures were 18.6% for boys and 25.6% for girls. These results show a gender difference in both reported formats, with the gap larger for print in percentage-point terms.
The survey also reported differences associated with free school-meal status. Among UK 8–18-year-olds receiving free school meals, 36.2% read fiction in print, compared with 51.4% of those not receiving them. Screen reading showed a different direction: 24.3% of children receiving free school meals read fiction on screen, compared with 21.7% of those not receiving them.
Exclusive screen reading was reported by 26.8% of children receiving free school meals and 19.3% of those not receiving them. These figures describe group differences in the survey. They do not identify a cause, and they should not be interpreted as evidence that meal status itself determines reading behavior.
Enjoyment, reading frequency, and book access
Reading enjoyment was strongly associated with the format measures in the National Literacy Trust data. Among UK 8–18-year-olds who enjoyed reading, 73.7% read fiction in print, compared with 37.5% among those with lower reading enjoyment. For screen fiction, the figures were 29.5% and 18.7%, respectively.
Reading in both formats was reported by 19.4% of children who enjoyed reading and 10.7% of those with lower reading enjoyment. Exclusive screen reading went in the opposite direction: 26.2% among those with lower reading enjoyment, compared with 14.7% among those who enjoyed reading. These figures indicate different format profiles within enjoyment groups, not a causal effect of enjoyment.
The National Literacy Trust also measured fan fiction on paper. The share was 24.9% for UK children ages 8–11, 13.3% for ages 11–14, 5.7% for ages 14–16, and 3.7% for ages 16–18. On screen, 16.8% of 16–18-year-olds reported reading fan fiction in their free time. The paper and screen figures are separate and should not be combined.
U.S. findings from Scholastic add measures of frequency and access. In a 2022 survey published in 2023, 35% of nine-year-olds reported reading books for fun five to seven days a week, compared with 57% of eight-year-olds. The share saying reading books for fun was extremely or very important fell from 65% at age eight to 57% at age nine, while the share saying they loved reading fell from 40% to 28%. These figures come from Finding Their Story: Navigate the World.
In the same publication year, Scholastic reported that 77% of U.S. children ages 6–8 said a lot or nearly everyone they knew enjoyed reading. The comparable figures were 66% for ages 9–11, 56% for ages 12–14, and 48% for ages 15–17. Separately, 42% of U.S. children ages 6–17 said they had trouble finding books they liked; that share rose to 59% among infrequent readers.
Home-library size also differed by reading frequency. U.S. children ages 6–17 had an average of 103 books in their home libraries. Frequent readers had 139 books, while infrequent readers had 74. The figures are reported in Finding Their Story: Access Matters, which also supplies the age and access comparisons above.
Finally, an earlier Scholastic study, published in 2017 from a 2015 study, reported that frequent U.S. readers ages 12–17 read an average of 39.6 books annually, compared with 4.7 books among infrequent readers. The source is Latest Kids & Family Reading Report from Scholastic. This older result should be kept separate from the 2022 survey estimates because it comes from a different measurement period and study.