Report: 54% of U.S. Children Have Never Read an Ebook

Children’s publisher Scholastic today released a report on children and reading. They surveyed 1,048 U.S. children ages 6 to 17 and their parents about their families’ reading habits. One interesting finding: Most children still haven’t read an ebook.

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46 percent of kids have read an ebook, up from 25 percent in 2010. (That’s actually a higher percentage than their parents: 41 percent of parents had read an ebook, up from 14 percent in 2010.) This means, of course, that 54 percent of kids still haven’t read one.

Amongst the kids who haven’t experienced an ebook, 57% of girls said they wanted to, while 46% of boys expressed a desire to do so.

There was a huge growth in reading on tablets since the last time this study was conducted. Not surprising since that was back in 2010, the same year the iPad launched.

Kids surveyed claim they’d read more if they had an iPad, and want dictionary and note-taking features built-in. The chart below compares what parents and children believe are important features to include in ebooks for kids.

The full report is here.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.