The decline of reading: its losing battle with computing technology. From the report:

Reading is a foundational activity for the humanities, but recent years have seen a downward trend in the amount of reading Americans do in their leisure time. The share of American adults who report they read at least one book for pleasure in the previous year has declined. As described here, the average amount of time American adults spend reading for personal interest has also fallen, with decline evident among Americans of virtually every age, amount of education, and income level….

From 2003 to 2017, the average amount of time Americans spent reading for personal interest per day fell by almost five minutes, to just under 17 minutes per day. In comparison, Americans spent an average of two hours and 46 minutes each day watching television, and almost 28 minutes playing games and using computers for leisure in 2017. The time spent on each of the latter activities increased from 2003 to 2017….

The average time American adults spent reading for personal interest declined at every education level from 2003 to 2017. The largest absolute decline occurred among those with advanced college degrees, with the average falling from 39 minutes per day in 2003 to 27 minutes in 2017. The largest proportional decline occurred among Americans with less than a high school education, where the average time spent reading fell by more than half, from 18 minutes per day to eight….

The data also reveal a positive association between earnings and time spent reading for personal interest. In 2017, Americans with full-time employment who were in the top 25% of earners spent an average of 15 minutes per day reading for personal interest and well under two hours per day watching television. This is compared to an average of less than 7 minutes per day reading among those in the bottom 50% of earners and more than two hours and 19 minutes watching TV…. [R]eading declined from 2004 to 2017 for Americans in every income category.

For other posts with humanities indicators, see here.