Subject: Re: 19% of U.S. adult citizens account for 82% of all books read in 2025
On Sat, 24 Jan 2026 16:41:33 -0500, William Hyde wrote:
Jay Morris wrote:
From a YouGov poll.
With most Americans reading no books or just a few books, and a
minority reading lots of books, that means that the distribution of the
total books read in the U.S. is very unequal. The 4% of Americans who
say they read 50 or more books alone account for 46% of all books read.
Add in the 6% of Americans who read between 20 and 49 books, and the 9%
who read between 10 and 19 books, and the top 19% of U.S. adult
citizens account for 82% of all books read in 2025.
The middle 40% read 18% of all books, and the bottom 40% read no books.
https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/53804-most-americans- didnt-read-many-books-in-2025
I once saw similar statistics relating to alcohol. Ten percent of
drinkers consumed 80% of all hard liquor produced.
William Hyde
Yup. Long tail distribution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail
Journalists discover one about, oh, every couple of months or so.
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