Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

Amid a national push to reduce screen time in schools, elementary and middle school students report less of their free time is spent reading.

The share of 13-year-olds who read for fun has declined by nearly half since 2012, according to survey data published Wednesday by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics.

The share of 9-year-olds — the other age group studied — who read for fun has declined 16 percentage points in the past 13 years. Students reading for pleasure generally correlates with higher reading scores on standardized tests, according to the report, with more dramatic gains for teens who say they read every day, compared with their peers who don’t.

The questionnaire is part of the National Center for Education Statistics’ nationwide math and reading testing for 9- and 13-year-olds. The most recent report includes data from more than 30,000 students, and the test itself has been conducted since the 1970s. The report includes math and reading scores, it also includes results of surveys of student attendance and reading habits.

Compared with teens, younger children report reading more often — 37% of 9-year-olds said they read for fun almost every day in 2025 — but still at lower rates than their peers in years prior. In 2020, 42% of 9-year-olds said they read for fun almost every day, as did 53% in 1984.

“Is this something that parents and educators should be aware of? Absolutely,” said Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “We are just not seeing the kind of progress in the reading space that we might want to see otherwise.”

Students who read in their free time are more likely to score higher on standardized tests than their peers who read less frequently, according to the NCES report. Lower standardized test scores have also been tied to increased screen time for youths, as more schools use tablets and laptops for teaching and learning. The most recent scores show that 9- and 13-year-olds’ reading and math skills have declined since 2012.

“With a significant decline starting in 2012, we can clearly see that this isn’t just a pandemic story,” Soldner said. “That should be used to inspire further investigation and more work.”

In response to declining scores, states have invested in early-childhood literacy programs, which experts say may account for some of the post-pandemic rebound in younger students’ reading scores.

“Literacy is critical to their ability to consume information in all of their other classes,” Soldner said.

More teens say they’re spending their free time online. A 2024 study found more than half of teens ages 12 to 17 spent four hours or more every day on a screen. Concerned parents have also pushed back against school-issued devices or digital learning practices, which has led to the introduction of several state-level bills that would limit education technology in public schools.