The percentage of adult Americans reading literature has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years. “Literature” includes novels, short stories, plays, and poetry but not works of nonfiction.
U.S. adult population
Rate of decline 1992–2002
1982
1992
2002
Number of literary readers (in millions)
96
100
96
Percentage reading literature
56.9%
54.0%
46.7%
–14%
Percentage reading any book
n.a.
60.9
56.6
–7
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, June 2004.