Bible readership in the U.S. 2018-2021

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 demographicsBible 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.

一项2021年的调查发现，11%的美国民众每日阅读《圣经》。在四年阅读习惯的趋势分析中，大多数美国民众从未阅读《圣经》，然而在2021年，这一比例降至29%。《圣经》阅读者的社会人口统计数据表明，《圣经》阅读者在不同社会群体中的分布存在差异，千禧一代最有可能从未阅读过《圣经》，而最频繁的阅读者则是70岁以上的群体。观察老年读者的偏好，传统书籍受到青睐，其中91%的人选择阅读纸质版本的《圣经》，而非其他格式。尽管数据显示阅读《圣经》的人数有所减少，但美国民众中仍有相当一部分人抱有阅读《圣经》的真挚愿望，2019年接受调查的56%的人表达了阅读《圣经》的愿望。态度的变化并非剧烈，反而似乎基督教圣典的疏离是一个渐进的过程。为什么越来越少的人阅读《圣经》？这无疑是一项艰巨的任务，因为《圣经》约有1200页，其篇幅与J.R.R.托尔金的流行史诗《指环王》系列相媲美。对《圣经》的复杂性和不熟悉其适用时机可能导致的挫败感，以及疏离的原因，也可能是其他可能的因素。然而，尽管阅读文本存在这些挑战，美国人口中仍有相当一部分人认为他们对上帝的信仰与《圣经》中的表述相兼容。