The Ends of Reading

Erik Fredner

2024-09-27

fredner.org/reading

Three numbers

  1. In 2022, the odds of people in the US reporting reading literature in the preceding year were 51% lower than in 1982.
  2. In 2023, the odds of people in the US reporting reading anything for personal interest in the preceding day were 46% lower than in 2003.
  3. In 2023, only 16% of people in the US reported reading anything for personal interest yesterday.

Three surveys

The Current Population Survey (CPS)

  • Monthly sample survey of 60,000 households.1
  • A probability sample to estimate state and national population.
    • Weights for factors including race, gender, and education.2
  • Eligible survey respondents are 16 or older and neither in the military nor institutionalized.

Reading data comes from CPS sample

  • The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is a supplement to the CPS.1
  • The American Time Use Survey selects respondents from households that completed their final interview for the CPS.2

The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA)

  • The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) founded in 1965
  • First SPPA report from the Research Division was about 1982 data
    • The latest report is about 2022 data

Reports

  • Reading at Risk is the best-known1 SPPA report
    • It showed declines in all types of reading among all surveyed groups
  • Subsequent reports have received much less attention

Reading questions

  • With the exception of books required for work or school, did you read any books during the last 12 months?
    • If yes: About how many did you read during the last 12 months?
  • During the last 12 months, did you read any…?
    • novels or short stories?
    • poetry?
    • plays?

Reading in the past year

Literature subcategories in the past year

How big are these changes?

Odds of reading any book in the last year in 1992: \[ \frac{0.61}{(1-0.61)} = 1.564 \]

Odds of reading any book in the last year in 2022: \[ \frac{0.49}{(1-0.49)} = 0.961 \]

Calculate odds ratio

\[ \text{Odds Ratio} = \frac{\text{2022 odds}}{\text{1992 odds}} = \frac{0.961}{1.564} \approx 0.614 \]

  • In 2022, the odds of reading any book in the last year were 61.4% of what they were in 1992.
  • Put another way, they are 38.6% less than they were in 1992.

Odds ratios for reading

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS)

  • Measures how US people spend their time, especially outside of work
  • Key differences from the SPPA:
    • Annual since 2003 (except 2020)
    • Responses about yesterday, not last year
    • Does not distinguish literary vs. non-literary reading

Methodology

  • “Reading for personal interest” is an activity within “Socializing, Relaxing, and Leisure”
  • Remainder category after other time use categorizations for reading have been attempted
    • Does not count reading for work, volunteering, education (including reading to children), or religious reasons
  • Both SPPA and ATUS capture reading for pleasure

What counts as “reading for personal interest?”

reading the newspaper, reading a book, reading a magazine, being read to, doing research, flipping/leafing through magazine, borrowing books from the library, checking out library books, returning library books, reading a book on a Kindle or other electronic book reader, listening to books on tape/audio book1

Reading for personal interest yesterday

Odds ratio of reading for personal interest yesterday

ATUS odds ratios of reading vs. other leisure activities

Reading for personal interest by education

Odds ratio of reading for personal interest by education

“Reading class” vs. “reading culture”

Every society that has writing has a reading class, but not everyone who can read is a member. All societies with written language have a reading class, but few have a reading culture. A reading culture is a society where reading is expected, valued, and common. A reading class has a stable set of characteristics that include its human capital (education), its economic capital (wealth, income, occupational positions), its social capital (networks of personal connections), its demographic characteristics (gender, age, religion, ethnic composition), and—the defining and noneconomic characteristic—its cultural practices.1

Evangelists of culture

“Professional members of the reading class are evangelists, fighting at the front line of culture to convert people to reading. Examples include teachers, professors, writers, editors, publishers, journalists, and…librarians.”1

What is to be done?

  • Educational attainment is the best predictor of reading.
  • Is majoring in a field of study that emphasizes reading (literary studies in particular, the humanities in general) associated with more reading for pleasure than you would expect based on educational attainment alone?
  • Professors, universities, and policymakers should want to know the answer to this question.

Thank you!

Works Cited

https://fredner.org/reading

“30-Day Notice for the ‘2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts’.” Federal Register. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/09/14/2021-19775/30-day-notice-for-the-2022-survey-of-public-participation-in-the-arts, September 2021.
“American Time Use Survey News Release - 2022 A01 Results.” https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/atus_06222023.htm, n.d. Accessed August 25, 2023.
“Differences Between the 2003 to 2022 Lexicons.” Washington, D.C: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2023.
Griswold, Wendy, Elizabeth Lenaghan, and Michelle Naffziger. “Readers as Audiences.” In The Handbook of Media Audiences, 17–40. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444340525.ch1.
Griswold, Wendy, and Hannah Wohl. “Evangelists of Culture: One Book Programs and the Agents Who Define Literature, Shape Tastes, and Reproduce Regionalism.” Poetics 50 (June 2015): 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.03.001.
“Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey Overview.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_over.htm, March 2020.
“Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America.” Research. Washington, D.C: National Endowment for the Arts, 2004.
“Sampling.” Current Population Survey (CPS). https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/technical-documentation/methodology/sampling.html, January 2022.