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There’s a simple statistic that often stops people in their tracks.
It is this: Reading for pleasure as a child is the factor that studies show is more closely correlated with future success than anything else — even more than family background, wealth, schooling or peer group.
It’s probably not a coincidence that 2011-12 was the time that smartphone adoption became prevalent in the U.S., with almost half of the adult population owning a smartphone by the end of 2012, and two-thirds owning one by 2015. The statistics for the decline in reading for pleasure are inversely proportional to those that track the number of hours of smartphone usage. These now amount to roughly nearly 5 hours a day for an average American, with younger adults clocking in around 7 hours.
For everyone involved in book publishing — writers, illustrators, translators, publishers, booksellers, printers — this decline in reading for pleasure is one of the most significant existential concerns. To some extent, it’s currently masked because a smaller subset of “fanatics” are buying more books than ever. We love and cherish these readers, and we don’t underestimate their positive effect for authors and the industry. But there are swaths of America where people are reading dramatically fewer books than before, and this broadly, and worryingly, corresponds to socioeconomic status.
A study in 2025 of more than 200,000 Americans found that the recent declines in reading for pleasure were steeper among Black Americans, lower-income groups, people with less education and those in rural areas. The decline in boys and men reading for fun was also steeper than that for girls and women.
We have strong data to show that kids often like to read books that reflect their lives. Books that reflect the lives of many kids are being banned across many states in school and public libraries, which would logically also have a negative effect on reading. To give an idea of the scale of this, PEN America has documented 22,800 instances of book bans across 45 states and 451 school districts. The statistics show that the books targeted are largely those by authors of color and/or LGBTQ+ authors, meaning many kids now are not able to read about characters who reflect their day-to-day lives and personal experiences. Children of color are a majority in the U.S.
Additionally, there are a growing number of “book deserts” where access to written materials is simply not available to many people in high poverty areas. According to the American Consortium for Equity in Education, 45% of kids in the U.S. live in a book desert.
America knows that eating five servings of fruit and vegetables per day is good for health. America knows that exercise is good for fitness. But I suspect most Americans do not know that regularly reading for pleasure is scientifically proved to improve mental well-being, increase empathy and protect against dementia.
Crucially, helping a child to explore the magic of reading is the single most helpful thing any parent or caregiver can do to maximize their chances of future success. Even just 10 minutes of reading for pleasure a day has been shown to have enormous benefits. In data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, kids who read for pleasure score substantially higher, even adjusted for family background. And there’s more: Kids who read for pleasure experience “vastly improved mental health,” according to a National Literacy report.
A campaign in the book industry, Raising Readers, aims to make these facts more widely known. Our slogan is “Reading is golden” — a nod to the fact that we do not believe reading should be seen as a competitor to scrolling on a smartphone, but instead as an antidote to it, respite from the mental toll that all-day digital presence can take on anyone.
Reading stands alone, offering unique benefits and pleasure. Sometimes that pleasure can be hard-won — it’s not a simple, instant dopamine hit — but it’s enduring and long-lasting. We remember the books we loved as a child for the rest of our lives. Can we say the same for a meme we enjoyed, or a social media post?
To get into the swing of reading, routine is important for busy families, which is why we’re suggesting starting with just 10 minutes of reading with a child per day. This could be a bedtime ritual or even a chapter of an audiobook on the way to school. Where we can, we are also trying to get books to those who need them the most in book deserts and through partnerships with Little Free Libraries, among others.
So, in the same way you might hand a child an apple to eat, give them a book and read it to them or with them as it might be the most powerful thing you can do to improve their life. And if you want to improve your own mental well-being, why not take some time out of your day to get back into reading?
David Shelley is chief executive of Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK.
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Ideas expressed in the piece
The article argues that reading for pleasure in childhood is one of the strongest predictors of later success, eclipsing factors such as family wealth, schooling and peer group, and therefore frames recreational reading as a core equity and opportunity issue rather than a luxury.
The piece highlights a sharp decline in children’s voluntary reading over the past decade, noting that U.S. survey data show the share of nine-year-olds who read for fun almost every day fell from about half in 2012 to under 40% by 2022, with the proportion of 13-year-olds reading daily also dropping to historic lows.[5][3][1]
The article contends that this downturn in reading began just as smartphones became ubiquitous, arguing that the rise in daily phone use has been inversely proportional to time spent reading for pleasure and that hours lost to scrolling are crowding out longer-form, immersive reading.
The piece suggests that for writers, illustrators, translators, publishers and booksellers, shrinking participation in leisure reading represents an existential threat that is only partially masked by a small but highly engaged group of “fanatic” readers who buy large numbers of books.
The article emphasizes that declines in reading for pleasure are steepest among Black Americans, lower-income communities, people with less formal education, rural residents and boys and men, portraying the trend as a widening cultural and educational gap along lines of race, class, geography and gender.
The piece argues that large-scale book bans and challenges in schools and public libraries, which disproportionately target titles by authors of color and LGBTQ+ authors, further suppress reading for pleasure by depriving many children of stories that reflect their daily lives and identities.
The article also warns about “book deserts” in high-poverty areas, where access to books is scarce, and maintains that nearly half of U.S. children live in communities with limited or no easy access to print materials, compounding the impact of digital distractions and censorship.
The piece stresses that regular reading for pleasure is scientifically associated with improved mental health, greater empathy, better academic outcomes and even protection against cognitive decline, citing international assessments that show children who read for enjoyment score substantially higher on achievement measures, even after accounting for family background.[5][1]
The article presents the book industry’s Raising Readers campaign as a public-health-style initiative, likening daily reading to eating fruit and vegetables or exercising and promoting “Reading is golden” as a message that positions books as an antidote to the mental strain of constant online engagement rather than as a direct competitor to smartphones.
The piece urges families to establish modest but consistent routines, such as at least 10 minutes of shared reading a day or listening to audiobooks together, and describes efforts to channel physical books into underserved areas through partnerships with community groups and informal neighborhood libraries as a practical response to the crisis.
Different views on the topic
In contrast to the article’s crisis framing, a report from the National Endowment for the Arts acknowledges declines but also notes that Americans continue to spend time reading for personal interest each day, suggesting that leisure reading has shrunk but not disappeared and that the picture is more mixed than a simple collapse.[5]
A survey of U.S. teachers and parents from a literacy-focused education group contends that many children still read for fun, with educators reporting that roughly three-quarters of K-8 students engage in recreational reading and a clear majority use school libraries, which challenges the notion that voluntary reading has vanished from everyday life.[6]
Research on phones and literacy offers a more nuanced view than the article’s emphasis on displacement, with one U.S.-based study finding that heavy phone talking can correlate with weaker decoding skills, yet frequent texting is linked to stronger reading comprehension, indicating that certain forms of digital communication may reinforce, not erode, aspects of literacy.[2]
A recent review of screen time and child development from U.S. health researchers argues that electronic books and learn-to-read applications can improve early reading skills when used appropriately, and that screens can support education as well as entertainment, complicating claims that digital media are purely antagonistic to books.[4]
Child-development specialists at a U.S. clinical nonprofit advocate a balanced approach that limits screen exposure for very young children but also recognize that carefully chosen, interactive apps and joint media use with caregivers can have educational benefits, suggesting that guidance and context may matter more than blanket opposition to screens.[8]
Health experts at a major U.S. medical center recommend setting clear boundaries around digital media while encouraging unplugged play and offline activities, yet do not call for total avoidance of devices; this perspective supports efforts to carve out screen-free time for reading without casting smartphones as wholly incompatible with healthy development.[7]
A cultural analysis in a national magazine observes that phone-based book apps and digital reading platforms can function as a bridge for children who are already highly motivated by screens, arguing that while the number of books read in any format has declined, mobile devices also host new forms of serialized fiction and audiobooks that broaden what “reading” looks like today.[9]
Some literacy advocates point out that official surveys typically focus on traditional books and print formats, and they caution that such metrics may undercount digital and audio reading; this view suggests that the full impact of smartphones on reading is ambiguous, blending real risks of distraction with emerging opportunities to engage young readers in new ways.[5][9]