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Demographics of Readers in the U.S.

by LarryC
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This should be of interest to anyone who writes Kindle or other books. According to a survey, the biggest readers (at least in the U.S.) are people in their 30s. It also goes into how many people read books in electronic formats.

I am very skeptical of some of the findings, especially the statistic that 78% of Americans have read at least one book in the past year. I suspect some people are simply lying about this.

However, even assuming that the numbers are skewed, you can gather some valuable data from the survey.

Biggest readers in U.S. teens or 30-somethings: survey - Yahoo! News
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by LarryC View Post


    I am very skeptical of some of the findings, especially the statistic that 78% of Americans have read at least one book in the past year.
    Yeah. They probably should have added "excluding Fifty Shades of Grey" to the survey question. :rolleyes:
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      Yeah. They probably should have added "excluding Fifty Shades of Grey" to the survey question. :rolleyes:
      Did you know that the sales of that book JUMPED when it went to kindle? They theory is that it is harder to tell what they are reading, and they were embarrassed to buy it!

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Phooey. I'm not buying much of what was reported in that survey. People reading books on their cell phones and computers? C'mon. I read a lot and find it very uncomfortable reading from a computer monitor. They don't even mention the biggest demographic in the country, Baby Boomers.

    Actually, they say people 65+ read the least but that only captures a single year of the Baby Boomers. They call long form e-content books, magazines and newspapers. Hmmm. I would hardly call magazines and newspapers long form anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author LarryC
    Yes, many of the findings are suspicious. I thought younger people read less, not more than older people. And in a country with a growing illiteracy problem, I'd estimate that less than half the population reads books at all.
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by LarryC View Post

      Yes, many of the findings are suspicious. I thought younger people read less, not more than older people. And in a country with a growing illiteracy problem, I'd estimate that less than half the population reads books at all.
      OK, I will admit it. I read FAR fewer books than I should. But I read a *******LOT*******. And there may be a lot of illiteracy, but most is probably NOT Americans. Even ILLEGAL ALIENS that don't want to deal with english AT ALL often have kids that can speak it, and they can often READ also.

      Do I think 78% ALWAYS read at least one book a year? NOPE! Do I believe they read the equivalent? YEP!

      Having said that, I don't think you could have "legitimately" passed the 1st grade without being able to read, when I was in the 1st grade. And they had a LOT of reading before highschool. Of course, by like 1985, teachers were INTENTIONALLY passing 3rd graders that couldn't read! HOW do I know? Well, outside of it being rather well known, some friends, that were teachers, TOLD ME!!!!!! THEY did it! They didn't want to stress out the kids!

      BTW The official literacy rate IS a lot higher than 78%! And many people that do polls are IDIOTS! They are either just utterly stupid, or biased and don't care. The questions are leading and/or vague, so the results are near WORTHLESS! This is ESPECIALLY true with education and politics. So we have NO idea what those 78% said.

      Steve
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