Most Americans still pick print
Pew Research finds most U.S. adults read books and that print remains the dominant format, even as e‑book and audiobook use have continued to grow. The report also notes relatively few Americans participate in book clubs, which helps explain why publishers keep broad, multi‑format releases at the center of marketing plans (pewresearch.org).
Three out of four United States adults said they read at least part of a book in the last 12 months, but the surprise in Pew Research Center’s new survey is that the old format still wins: 72% read a print book, compared with 41% who read an electronic book and 35% who listened to an audiobook. (pewresearch.org) That gap has narrowed without disappearing. In 2011, Pew found 72% of adults read print, 17% read electronic books, and 11% listened to audiobooks, so digital formats grew sharply over 14 years while print held its ground at the same 72% share. (pewresearch.org, pewresearch.org) Pew’s numbers also show this is not a story of one format replacing another. Many readers now move between paper, screens, and headphones the way people switch between a theater, a television, and a phone for the same movie. (pewresearch.org) The survey behind the new findings was large enough to matter in publishing meetings: Pew questioned 8,046 adults from October 6 to October 16, 2025, using its American Trends Panel and the SSRS Opinion Panel to represent the full United States adult population. (pewresearch.org) Book clubs turned out to be much smaller than the culture around them suggests. Pew found only 9% of adults take part in an in-person book club and 8% take part in an online book club, which means the vast majority of reading still happens alone, not in organized groups. (pewresearch.org, pewresearch.org) That helps explain why publishers usually launch the same title in several formats at once. If readers are scattered across print, electronic, and audio, and only a small minority gathers in clubs, the safest bet is to be available everywhere instead of betting on one reading habit. (pewresearch.org, publishersweekly.com) Print still dominates even with some recent softness in store sales. Circana BookScan data reported by Publishers Weekly showed first-quarter 2026 print unit sales fell 3.1% from a year earlier to 163.5 million copies, which is a slowdown in buying, not evidence that print has stopped being the default format for readers. (publishersweekly.com, pewresearch.org) So the book business is living in two eras at once. Phones made electronic books and audiobooks normal, but when Americans actually say what they read, the object with paper pages still comes out on top. (pewresearch.org)
