Chart: People Age 65 and Older More Likely Than Younger People To Read For Personal Interest

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

March 2 was Read Across America Day and, not coincidentally, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss. This annual program aims to motivate children and teens to read. Let’s look at the most recent data on the reading habits of Americans. On an average day in 2016, 38.3 percent of people age 65 and older read for personal interest. That was a larger percentage than any other age group. By comparison, 9.4 percent of people ages 15 to 24 read for personal interest on an average day in 2016.


These data are from the American Time Use Survey. For more information, see “American Time Use Survey — 2016 Results” (HTML) (PDF).

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