Everand—a company that offers a monthly subscription for access to ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, and more—just released their 2025 State of Reading Report. They gathered data on why we read, how and what we read, our beliefs about books, and the evolution of reading by interviewing 1,500 US consumers aged 18-64 who had paid for an ebook or audiobook subscription within the last two years.
Some of the report’s findings are below.
Why we read
- The survey found that 95% of participants thought that reading was important to them
- 95% read for leisure, while 85% find it releaxing
How and what we read
- 50% of participants preferred a mix of reading physical and digital books
- 57% consumed a mix of audiobooks and ebooks
Our beliefs about books
- 84% of participants believe the best stories are the ones you like
The evolution of reading
- 28% of participants think social media has influenced their reading greatly
- 34% think social media has made reading more popular
- 69% participate in book clubs to discover new authors and books
- 86.2% strongly oppose book bans
- 77% use ebook and audiobook formats daily or weekly
Going into the rest of the year, this snapshot of how a certain subset of readers read and view reading is interesting. Through it, we can see the vast effects that things like social media and recent book banning efforts have had on the book world in such a short time.
To get more statistics and context around the study, visit Everand.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.