Americans don't read as much as they used to


In 1982, nearly six in 10 American adults — 57 percent — reported having read at least one work of literature, like a novel, short story, play, or poetry collection, in the last 12 months. But as of 2015, only 43 percent can say the same:
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That decline marks a 30-year low in Americans' reading habits, according to new data from the National Endowment for the Arts. For comparison, in 2015, 66 percent of respondents went to a movie or attended a live performance.
Among adults who do read, demographics make a difference. Women are more likely to read literature than men; white people are more likely to read than black or Hispanic Americans; and higher levels of education correspond to higher literature consumption rates.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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