There is a gender gap in the global literacy rate. Although literacy rates have generally increased worldwide for both men and women, men are on average more literate than women. As of 2024, about 90.91 percent of men and a little less than 88.8 percent of women worldwide were literate. Adult literacy rate is defined as the percentage of people aged 15 years and above who can both read and write with understanding a short, simple statement about their everyday life. Youth literacy rate Not only does the literacy gender gap concern adults, it also exists among the world’s younger generations aged 15 to 24. Despite an overall increase in literacy, young men are still more literate than young women. In fact, the global youth literacy rate as gender parity index was 0.98 as of 2023, indicating that young women are not yet as literate as young men. Gender pay gap Gender gaps occur in many different spheres of global society. One such issue concerns salary gender gaps in professional life. Regarding the controlled gender pay gap, which measures the median salary for men and women with the same job and qualifications, women still earned less than men as of 2024. The difference was even bigger when measuring the median salary for all men and women. However, not everyone worries about gender pay gaps. According to a survey from 2021, 54 percent of the female respondents deemed the gender pay gap a real problem, compared to 45 percent of the male respondents.

In the past five decades, the global literacy rate among adults has grown from 67 percent in 1976 to 87.36 percent in 2023. In 1976, males had a literacy rate of 76 percent, compared to a rate of 58 percent among females. This difference of over 17 percent in 1976 has fallen to just seven percent in 2020. Although gaps in literacy rates have fallen across all regions in recent decades, significant disparities remain across much of South Asia and Africa, while the difference is below one percent in Europe and the Americas. Reasons for these differences are rooted in economic and cultural differences across the globe. In poorer societies, families with limited means are often more likely to invest in their sons' education, while their daughters take up a more domestic role. Varieties do exist on national levels, however, and female literacy levels can sometimes exceed the male rate even in impoverished nations, such as Lesotho (where the difference was over 17 percent in 2014); nonetheless, these are exceptions to the norm.

Graph and download economic data for Literacy Rate, Adult Total for Developing Countries in Latin America and Caribbean (SEADTLITRZSLAC) from 1974 to 2024 about Caribbean Economies, Latin America, literacy, adult, and rate.

The average daily time spent reading by individuals in the United States in 2024 amounted to **** hours, or **** minutes. According to the study, adults over the age of ** were the most avid readers, spending over ** minutes reading each day. Meanwhile, those aged between 15 and 19 years read for just **** minutes per day on average. Reading and COVID-19 Daily time reading increased among most consumers between 2019 and 2020, part of which could be linked to the unprecedented increases in media consumption during COVID-19 shutdowns. The mean annual expenditure on books per consumer unit also increased year over year, along with spending on digital book readers. Book reading habits A 2020 survey on preferred book formats found that ** percent of U.S. adults favored print books over e-books or audiobooks. However, engagement with digital books is growing. Figures from an annual study on book consumption revealed that the share of adults who reported reading an audiobook in the last year almost doubled between 2011 and 2019, and e-book readership also grew overall during that period.

In 2023, the share of women aged 15 or older who could read and write in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 94.79 percent, around 0.33 percentage point lower than the literacy rate among adult men. This region's adult literacy rate averaged at 94.8 percent in 2023.

In 2023, the average adult literacy rates (15 years and older) in Latin America and the Caribbean amounted to 94.79 percent. Literacy rates in Latin America and the Caribbean have been slightly improving in all three age groups since 2014.

In 2024, adults in the United States spent more time reading on weekends than weekdays, according to recent data. The average time spent reading in the U.S. amounted to *** hours (18 minutes) on weekends and holidays, while daily time spent reading on weekdays in 2024 remained belowpre-pandemic levels at just over a ******* of an hour.

a U.S.-born respondents’ mean literacy score (277) is just above the Level 3 threshold (276–325), whereas immigrants’ mean score (241) corresponds to lower Level 2 (226–275).b U.S.-born and immigrant respondents’ mean numeracy scores both correspond to Level 2 (226–275), but they fall at the higher (260) and lower (228) ends of Level 2, respectively.Note: Means and standard deviations reported for continuous variables. Percentages reported for categorical variables; Difference of means/percentage t-tests to determine sig of differences, p-values represent two-tailed testsN = 4,646; weighted valuesDescriptive Statistics for Sample Characteristics by U.S.-Born versus Immigrant.

During a survey held in early 2021, it was found that 83 percent of adults aged between 18 and 29 years old had read a book in any format in the previous year, up by two percent from the share who said the same in 2019. The survey results showed that adults within this age category were more likely than older respondents to have read a book within the last twelve months.

Book readers in the U.S.

While it is mostly believed that book reading is a vanishing pastime, particularly among Millennials, surveys among consumers in the U.S. have shown the opposite. The share of book readers in the U.S. has varied from 72 percent to 79 percent between 2011 and 2016.

In regards to age of book readers in the country, a 2016 survey shows about 80 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 to 29 had read at least one book in the previous 12 months, the highest share amongst all age groups. About 73 percent of the respondents aged between 30 to 49 years old said they read at least one book in the last 12 months. The share among respondents between 50 and 64 years old stood at 70 percent, whereas 67 percent of respondents aged 65 plus stated reading book during the time measured. In terms of education level, book readers in the U.S. are more likely to have a college degree, or at least some college education – 86 percent and 81 percent respectively. Women in the U.S. read slightly more than men; 68 percent of male respondents started reading at least one book in the previous 12 months, against 77 percent of female respondents that said the same.

Despite the rise of digital platforms and the rising popularity of e-reading devices such as Kindle, Kobo and others, printed books still remain the most popular book format in the U.S., as 65 percent of Americans stated preference for printed books in 2016. E-books were consumed by 28 percent of respondents in 2016, whereas audio books were listened by 14 percent of the respondents. Millennials accounted for the largest share of printed book readers in the U.S. – 72 percent as of 2016.

This statistic shows the frequency of reading comic books among adults in the United States as of November 2018, broken down by age group. The data shows that ** percent of U.S. respondents aged 55 or above said that they had never read a comic book, compared to ** percent of those aged 18 to 34 years who said the same. Similarly, six percent of ***** year olds said that they read comics once a month, compared to just *** percent of respondents aged 55 or older.

Despite the average daily time spent reading per capita in the United States decreasing in recent years, the average amount of time spent reading the Bible has remained stable. A survey showed that 23 percent of U.S. adults reported spending one hour of more with the bible in each sitting in 2017, compared to 24 percent four years earlier.

The Bible: consumption in the United States

The frequency of reading the Bible among adults in the U.S. changed very little between 2018 and 2019, however reading habits among survey respondents were at two extremes. Whilst the majority reported never reading the Bible at all, the second largest share of adults said that they read the text every day. Whilst the average time spent with the Bible has only very mildly fluctuated over the last few years, attitudes and consumption habits are changing.

Back in 2011, 67 percent of surveyed U.S. adults said that they wished they used the Bible more, however by 2019 this figure had dropped to 56 percent. In addition to this, digital formats have become more prevalent and have proved more appealing to younger readers than to older generations. Print is still by far the most popular format, however more Millennials and Gen-Xers prefer to read the Bible via a smartphone or tablet app than their older peers, and the frequency of reading online versions of the Bible was also higher among younger generations.

Whilst to older generations using digital versions of religious or sacred texts may seem strange or even a step too far, clearly a demand for such content exists. The Bible app came second in a ranking of the highest rated iOS apps in the United States with over 97 percent positive user reviews – that’s almost ten percent more than Spotify. With consumers all over the world making the move from print to digital, it is possible that digital versions of the Bible will increase in popularity even further, though there will likely always be groups who simply believe such a text should be kept in its traditional format.

A survey held in February 2022 revealed that most consumers never use newspapers as a source of news, and only 21 percent of adults aged 65 or above (those who engage with newspapers the most) reported reading newspapers every day. Newspapers are less popular as a news source than radio, and are also among the least used daily news sources among adults aged 18 years or older.