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If reading has slipped out of your routine, you are not alone—but there is no single proven reason why. U.S. time-use data shows that fewer people read for pleasure on a typical day than two decades ago. Competing demands on time, tiredness, distraction and a lost routine may all play a part, but the trend does not identify what caused any one person to read less.
What the numbers say about reading less
A 2025 analysis by researchers at University College London and the University of Florida found that the share of Americans aged 15 and older who read for pleasure on an average day fell from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. The researchers analyzed 236,270 participants in the American Time Use Survey from 2003 through 2023. Their measure included books, magazines, newspapers, ebooks and audiobooks—not just printed books. Read the study.
The researchers estimated a 3% relative decrease in daily participation per year across the study period. That is a modeled population trend, not a claim that each reader cut their reading by 3% every year. The analysis excluded 2020 because pandemic-related changes to data collection meant that year’s weights could not be combined with the other survey years.
Fewer people reading on a particular day does not mean most people never read. In a separate survey conducted in October 2025, 75% of U.S. adults said they had read all or part of at least one book in the previous 12 months. Pew Research Center published those results in 2026. The annual question captures whether someone read at least once over a year; the time-use study captures reading on a sampled day. Both results can be true. See Pew’s book-reading findings.
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Why might reading have fallen out of your routine?
Time and attention go elsewhere
There is only so much time available for leisure. The study’s authors discuss competition from other media and the possibility that people now turn to websites and forums for some information they once got from books. Digital devices may also interrupt reading. U.S. research shows a correlation between declining reading and rising use of other digital media, but the time-use analysis cannot prove that phones or social media caused the decline—or explain an individual reader’s change.
Being tired or busy makes starting harder
In interviews reported by the Associated Press, readers and library professionals described fatigue, busy schedules and losing the habit as obstacles. Jacqueline Rammer, director of Menomonee Falls Public Library, said that when people are “really tired and busy,” it can be difficult to think about reading if it is not already part of their routine. These are reported experiences, not estimates of how common each barrier is. Read the AP report.
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Reading can start to feel like work
Years of assigned reading may leave some people associating books with obligation rather than pleasure, according to the AP interviews. If a book feels like another task, it is understandable that it loses out to easier ways to unwind. That does not mean you have lost the ability to enjoy reading; it may mean the material or circumstances are not inviting you back in.
Reading less often does not necessarily mean reading less when you do
The time-use analysis found that average daily reading time across the full sample declined from 23 minutes in 2004, with an estimated decrease of 0.36 minutes a year across the study period. Yet among people who read on the sampled day, average time rose from about 1 hour 23 minutes in 2003 to 1 hour 37 minutes in 2023. In other words, fewer people were reading on a typical day, while those who did read still spent substantial time doing it. The two measures describe different parts of the pattern; neither tells you how much any one person reads.
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How to get back into reading without making it a chore
Advice from the AP interviews is deliberately low-pressure. It is expert guidance, not a tested formula that guarantees a habit will return.
- Pick something you already expect to enjoy. An approachable book connected to a subject, show or film you like may be a better starting point than a dense book you feel you ought to read.
- Ask for a recommendation. Friends, booksellers, librarians or reader communities can help you find a book that suits your interests.
- Give yourself permission to switch. If a book feels sluggish, pause it and try another. As University College London researcher Jess Bone put it in the AP report, reading “shouldn’t feel like a burden.”
- Choose the format that fits your life. In Pew’s October 2025 U.S. survey, 64% of adults said they had read a print book in the previous 12 months, 31% an ebook and 26% an audiobook. People could use more than one format. These figures show what people use, not that one format is better for concentration or rebuilding a habit.
Print, ebooks and audiobooks can each fit different routines and preferences. Consider what is comfortable and easy to return to: a physical book at home, an ebook you can carry, or an audiobook when listening suits the moment. There is no evidence here that buying a particular device, setting a fixed daily target or blocking screens will restore a reading habit.
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What the trend can—and cannot—tell you
The U.S. findings describe population patterns, not an explanation for a particular reader. In 2023, older adults, women, people with higher education and family income, and people without disabilities were more likely to report reading on the sampled day. The researchers also found widening gaps over time for Black respondents, people with lower education or income, and people in non-metropolitan areas. These associations should not be read as judgments about any individual’s motivation or ability.
Pew’s annual book figures have their own limits: they rely on self-reports about the preceding 12 months, and the 2025 survey used web and phone methods, whereas earlier waves used phone. The results answer a different question from daily time-use diaries, so a change in one measure should not be treated as a direct explanation for another.
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