Readers. it’s time to turn a page. In a December 27, 2012 report entitled, “E-book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines,” the Pew Research Center found that “the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%.” At the same time, the report says, the number of people who read printed books in the previous 12 months “fell from 72% of the population ages 16 and older to 67%.”
It’s not a sharp decline. The survey of 2,252 Americans (ages 16 and older), found that 89% of the book readers had read a printed book (or 67% of all those ages 16 and older). At the same time, 30% of the book readers said they had read an e-book, which translates into 23% of all those ages 16 and older. An April Pew research project showed that “in mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%.