First: I wanna clarify this. I know that loads of people read like 100 books a year, or read all the time. I know these people exist. I’m asking about people that are like… average. An average american who just… reads. Doesn’t track everything or sets goals of like 100, or never stops reading… Anyway, I’ve been searching this up, and i find answers like 15-50, even 100. I find this highly unlikely, especially for average US citizens. Half the people i know don’t even pick up 5 books a year, let alone 15! I just don’t believe these stats. I read somewhere that people read 8 a month on average? That can’t be right for an average person. That’s like 2 books a week… I know people do read this much, but still… For an average person? So be real… how many books do people actually read a year?
I think there are a couple of ways to look at the data. One would be the number of books read by all the people in the nation divided by the number of people of reading age that live in the nation. You can also look at the average number of books readers read, but you would also have to determine who would qualify as a reader. There are plenty of people who read for leisure or work that don’t consider themselves a reader.
I can tell you my average per year has varied wildly depending on what phase of life I was in. I was an avid reader as a kid and averaged a couple of books per week easily, plus my school work. As a young adult with a full time job and part time college I still read a couple of books per month. When I added a husband and kids to the mix, I was thrilled to read 2 books a year. One year when we were planning vacation, I told my husband the only thing I wanted to do was be able to read a book cover to cover in a single week. We found a place with a kids club and I got my wish. When the kids were older I started a business and I read an average of a book a week, but they were all nonfiction for work. Now I’m retired and I average 15 books per month.
I only started logging books a few years ago. I’m basing my childhood estimates on the fact that I got most of my books from the school library as a kid and I know we were only able to check out 2 per week and I always finished them. Over the summer we went to the public library and I usually checked out a stack every 2 weeks.
For contrast, I’ve been married for over 30 years and I’ve never seen my husband read a single book in that time. I doubt he has read one since he was in school. I’m the youngest of 5 children and I 3 of them never read, the one that does read, probably averages 1-2 per year.