Nearly Half of Americans Read Zero Books in 2025

by Glenn T. Stanton | December 31, 2025 | Culture

The folks at YouGov, a leading polling group, are ending 2025 with a very interesting piece of data: Americans are no longer big book readers. This is a shame, because people reading books is a wonderful thing. After all, God is the Word who became a human person and we are given this truth in an essential divine Book. Persons and books. God is big on both. So should we be.

It is an indisputable fact that the reading of books makes us more human, and humane.

The great C.S. Lewis strongly contended that we should endeavor to read older books over the new. He held,

Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. … It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

 And just to be clear, “old books” are not those written last year, or even last century. Lewis is speaking of books that have stood true and inspiring over millennia. We humans have a great and rich tradition to draw from. Christians, even more so.

Now, about that YouGov data.

It is certainly not an encouraging sign that 40% of American adults read zero books in 2025. YouGov tells us that the “median American read two books in 2025.”

Another 40% of Americans read from one to nine books. The top 4% of readers alone did nearly half of all Americans’ book reading.

Of course, you can be sure the majority of Americans clocked plenty of time with TikTok and Instagram. Nobody ever became a better, wiser person there.

Everyone who reads a great book becomes wiser – even if only a little bit.

The sad stats from YouGov are that if you read only four books this year, you read more than 64% of Americans. If you read only two, feel good about yourself. You read more books than 47% of Americans. Check your score here.

As the YouGov graph demonstrates, only 19% of American adults do 82% of our country’s reading of books.

This data becomes more discouraging when we consider this observation:

Americans with more education are more likely to read more books: Those with postgraduate degrees read a median of five books and an average of 13.6 books, for example, while those with a high school education or less read a median of zero books and an average of 4.6.

Be sure to read a number of very good books in 2026. It will make you a better person, for sure. Focus on the Family’s wonderful bookstore exists to help you choose wisely. You can even visit us online.

Photo from Getty Images.