Digital content continues to lag behind a good,
old-fashioned printed book in readers’ preference, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. The study found that 65% of Americans said they read a print book over the last 12 months,
while just 28% read an e-book and 14% listened to an audiobook.
More than 70% of Americans reported reading a book in
the last year, a number that has remained consistent since 2012. Almost 35%
said they read an e-book or listened to an audiobook in the last year, but just
6% said they only read digital content.
E-book readership did increase by 11 percentage points between
2011-2014, but numbers have not changed since. The survey, conducted last
March, also found that 19% of Americans under the age of 50 have used a
cellphone to read a book and just 8% said they used a dedicated e-reader.
“While
print remains at the center of the book-reading landscape as a whole, there has
been a distinct shift in the e-book landscape over the last five years,” wrote the
authors of the report. “Americans increasingly turn to multipurpose devices
such as smartphones and tablet computers—rather than dedicated e-readers—when
they engage with e-book content. The share of e-book readers on tablets has
more than tripled since 2011 and the number of readers on phones has more than
doubled over that time, when the share reading on e-book reading devices has
not changed.”