The statistic shows the impact of the Bible on the behavior of people who read it monthly in the United States as of February 2019. At the time of survey, 22 percent of respondents who read the Bible at least monthly very strongly agreed that they were more willing to engage in their faith, while 13 percent stated that reading the Bible made them more generous with their time, energy or financial resources.

A survey from 2021 found that 11 percent of Americans read the Bible daily. Trends in reading habits over four years showed that the majority of Americans never read the Bible, however in 2021 this number dropped to 29 percent of respondents. Bible readership demographics Bible readership varies across each demographic, with Millennials most likely to have never read the Bible, whereas the most frequent readers were those aged over 70 years old. Looking at the preferences of the older readers, traditional books were favored, with 91 percent opting for a print version of the Bible to read over other formats.

Although figures show that fewer people are reading the Bible, there is still a genuine desire to read the Bible amongst the American population, with 56 percent of those asked in 2019 expressing a wish to read it. Changes in attitudes have not been drastic, but rather it seems that disengagement with the Christian scripture has been a gradual process. Why are fewer people reading the Bible? Certainly, it is no small undertaking, as with approximately 1,200 pages the Bible is of comparable length to the popular epic ‘Lord of the Rings’ series by J.R.R. Tolkien. Other possible frustrations with the Bible and reasons for disengagement could come from complexities in language or simply not knowing when to use it. However, despite these challenges in reading the text, a significant proportion of the U.S. population consider their belief in God to be compatible with the representation in the Bible.

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.

The graph presents data on the popularity of the versions of the Bible read in the United States as of January 2017. During the survey, 31 percent of the respondents stated they most often read the King James Version of the Bible. During the same survey, 32 percent of respondents stated that they had never read the Bible, whilst 16 percent stated that they read the Bible every day. New ways of reading the Bible have begun to become popular, such as using the internet to access Bible content or searching for Bible verses on a smartphone. However, reading from a print version of the Bible still remains the most popular method.

The graph presents data comparing the readership of the Bible by various generations in the United States as of January 2016. During the survey, 35 percent of Millennials stated they never read the Bible.

The graph presents data on the time spent in reading the Bible in the United States as of January 2016. During the survey, 29 percent of respondents between the ages of 51 to 69 stated they spent on average 30 to 44 minutes reading the Bible in each sitting.

The graph presents data on the most significant frustrations when reading the Bible among adults in the United States as of February 2019. The findings reveal that eight percent of respondents reported finding the language in the Bible difficult to relate to, and six percent said that they didn't feel excited to use the Bible. Other frustrations included finding the stories confusing or a lack of understanding about the background and history of the text.

This statistic displays the share of people sometimes reading the Bible in the Netherlands 1996 and 2017. Between 1996 and 2017, the share of people sometimes reading the Bible in the Netherlands decreased. Whereas in 1996, just over 30 percent of respondents said to sometimes read the Bible. By 2017, this was only 16 percent.

The graph presents data on the frequency of using the Bible specifically through an app, audio, podcast or as a result of an internet search among adults in the United States as of January 2019, sorted by generation. The findings show that 23 percent of Millennials and Gen-Xers reported using the Bible in a digital format several times per week, compared to ten percent of Boomers who said the same.

In the Bible, the Patriarchs may broadly apply to the 20 men in the ancestral line between Adam and Abraham, or it may specifically refer to the Prophets Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob. All of these men's stories are found in the book of Genesis, and this ancestral line can even be traced through both the Old and New Testament to Jesus, through figures such as David, Solomon, and Zerubbabel, to both family lines of Mary and Joseph. Oldest person ever The first 10 patriarchs in Genesis are referred to as the antediluvian as their stories are largely told before the Great Flood, and most of these men are said to have lived for over 900 years, with Methusela often cited as the oldest man in history, at 969 years old. After the Flood, lifespans of the patriarchs tend to grow shorter, but they are still longer than any of those recorded in recent history. The lifespans of the patriarchs in the Bible is in stark contrast to estimates for average life expectancy before the industrial era, which was usually around 24 years, or around 50-60 years for those who survived into adulthood. Significance Most of the numbers given in this genealogy are stated in Chapters five and eleven of Genesis, where three numbers are generally attached to each patriarch - their age at the time of their son's birth, their lifespan thereafter, and their total lifespan. These figures can then show how much overlap there was between the lives of each patriarch, and depending on the bible's translation, this gives a timeframe of somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 years. When combined with the subsequent events spread across the Bible, this is a large part of why many adherents believe that the earth is somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 years old (5783 in the Hebrew calendar), in contrast to the figure of 4.54 billion years that is generally accepted among the scientific community.