Kids' reading for fun has cratered since 2012, federal data shows

New National Center for Education Statistics survey data shows recreational reading among American schoolchildren has fallen steeply over the past 13 years. The share of 13-year-olds who read for fun has dropped by nearly half since 2012, while 9-year-olds declined 16 percentage points over the same period. Even among the younger group — historically more avid readers — only 37% reported reading for fun almost daily in 2025, down from 42% in 2020 and 53% in 1984. The figures come from questionnaires attached to NCES’s long-running national math and reading assessments, covering more than 30,000 students.

The decline matters because free-time reading correlates strongly with standardized test performance, with the biggest gains among teens who read daily. Both reading and math scores for these age groups have slid since 2012 — a timeline that, as acting NCES commissioner Matthew Soldner noted, predates the pandemic and roughly coincides with the rise of ubiquitous screens. A 2024 study found over half of teens ages 12–17 spend four or more hours daily on screens, and increased screen time has separately been linked to lower test scores.

The trend is feeding a policy backlash against classroom technology: parents are pushing back on school-issued devices, and several states have introduced bills to limit ed-tech in public schools. States have also invested in early-childhood literacy programs, which may explain a partial post-pandemic rebound in younger students’ reading scores.