Recreational reading has been on the rise. In this post, I examine the consumption of recreational books and examine who is reading for leisure. I find that leisure readers tend to be female, older, White, unemployed, high earners (for those who are employed), highly educated, and have no household children.

Figure 1, below, shows the increase in recreational book consumption between 1929 and 2019. Notice that the consumption of books for recreation rose steadily between 1929 and 2007 before taking a dip starting in 2008. The consumption of recreational books then began rising again in 2014. Overall, however, the consumption of recreational books is on the rise.

The General Social Survey (GSS) asks survey respondents whether they engaged in recreational reading–novels, short stories, poems, or plays–in the past twelve months. In 1998, 68% of respondents said, “yes.” In 2002, 73% of respondents said, “yes.” Between 1998 and 2002, the percentage of respondents who engaged in reading for recreation and leisure increased by 5%.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) lends insight into who is doing the recreational reading in 2019. Figure 2, below, shows that women spend more time each day reading. Men spend 13.8 minutes reading per day. Women spend 18.6 minutes reading per day. Therefore, women spend 4.8 minutes more than men spend on reading for leisure a day.

Figure 3, below, shows the amount of time respondents spent reading for recreation by age. Those who are 75 years and over spend the most time reading per day. In fact, those 75 years and over spend more than 7 times as much time reading per day than those who are 20 to 24 years of age.

Figure 4, below, shows the amount of time spent reading a day by race and ethnicity. Whites and Asians spend the most amount of time reading for leisure a day, followed by Black or African American. Hispanics or Latinos spend the least amount of time reading a day.

Figure 5, below, shows the hours per day spent reading for leisure by employment status. Those who are unemployed spend the most time reading. They are followed by part-time workers. Finally, full-time workers spend the least time reading for leisure every day.

Figure 6, below, shows the hours per day spent reading for leisure by weekly earnings (for those who are employed). Those who make $1,621 and higher spend the most time reading for leisure. Those who make between 0$ and $650 spend the least amount of time reading.

Figure 7, below, shows the amount of hours spent reading for recreation by presence of household children. Those who have no children under 18 spend the most amount of time reading for leisure. Those who have household children under 18 spend less than half the amount of time reading compared with those who have no children.

Finally, figure 8, below, shows the amount of time each day spent reading by educational attainment. Those who have an advanced degree spend the most amount of time reading for leisure. They are followed by those with a bachelor’s degree and higher. Those with less than a high school diploma spend the least amount of time reading for leisure a day.

Recreational reading, except for a blip between 2008 and 2014, has been on the rise since 1929, as evidenced by the amount of personal consumption of recreational books. Those reading plays, short stories, novels, and poems for leisure and recreation increased by 5% between 1998 and 2002. Finally, the demographics of leisure readers tend to be female, older, White, unemployed, high earners (for those who are employed), highly educated, and have no household children.

Sources: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t11A.htm, https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/2129/vshow, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DRBKRC1A027NBEA