Is your New Year’s resolution to read more books in 2026? Let’s hope that’s one of the top goals for many of us because new research reveals our reading habits have tanked and are in need of major improvements.
According to a new YouGov poll, 40% of Americans didn’t read a single book, not even one, last year.
- Just over a quarter (27%) of adults read between one and four books in 2025. And we’re not just talking about print formats, this includes digital and audio versions as well.
- Another 13% helped bring the average up, reading between five and nine books over the year.
- Fortunately, 19% did the heavy lifting - or reading - finishing 10 or more books throughout 2025.
- That includes 9% who read 10 to 19 books, 6% who finished 20 to 49, and a very impressive 4% who read 50 books or more.
- But that doesn’t change the fact that the median American read just two books in 2025. And the average adult read eight.
- Crunch those numbers and it means 19% of adults in this country did 82% of the reading.
- While these stats may sound shocking, they’re actually pretty similar to findings from the last two years.
- It turns out, it’s the 65 and older set who are turning most of the pages, reading significantly more than any other age group. Seniors averaged about 12 books this year.
- As for what we’re reading, the most popular genre of 2025 was mystery and crime. More than a third (35%) of Americans who read at least one book read one of those novels.
- History is the second most popular genre (30%), followed by biography and memoir (27%), thrillers (23%), fantasy (23%) and romance (23%).
Source: Lit Hub