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When was the last time you actually finished a paper book? It’s a personal question—and the available surveys can’t answer it for you. They measure whether people read some or all of a book, not whether they reached the final page.
Print remains widely read, but that doesn’t mean readers finish every book
In a Pew Research Center survey conducted October 6–16, 2025, 64% of U.S. adults said they had read a print book in the previous 12 months. That is evidence that print remains a common format, not a rate of completed books: respondents counted if they read all or part of a book.
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Pew also found that 75% of U.S. adults had read a book in any format in the past year. The format figures were 64% for print, 31% for e-books and 26% for audiobooks. These groups overlap; a person could use more than one format. Pew’s report describes print as “the only book format used by a majority of Americans.”
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteWhy the survey can’t tell you when someone finished a paper book
Pew asked: “In the past 12 months, about how many books did you read either all or part of the way through?” Because the question explicitly counts books read only in part, its results cannot establish how many respondents finished a book, let alone when they last completed one.
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That distinction is easy to lose when a headline compresses “read a book” into a single number. Starting a novel and setting it aside still qualifies under this measure. So does finishing one. The statistic captures reported reading, not follow-through or the date of a last completed book.
Other surveys measure different groups and questions
YouGov reported that 46% of U.S. adult citizens read at least one physical book in 2025. Its survey included 2,203 adults and was conducted December 15–19, 2025. YouGov also reported 59% reading at least one book, 24% reading a digital book and 23% listening to an audiobook. These self-reported figures also do not record whether a book was completed. YouGov’s results should not be averaged with Pew’s: the surveys differ in population, wording and design.
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Geography and the activity being measured matter, too. In BookNet Canada’s 2024 study of English-speaking Canadian adults, book buyers purchased an average of 3.6 new books per month, including two print books. That is a purchase pattern among buyers, not a measure of reading or completion among all Canadian adults. The study reports a ±3 percentage-point margin of error at 95% confidence for the group described. BookNet Canada’s findings also cover buying and borrowing, not the last book someone finished.
Singapore’s National Library Board reported that 89% of surveyed adults read more than once a week in its 2024 National Reading Habits Study. That broad frequency measure, compared with 2018 for better comparability, does not identify a format or ask when someone completed a paper book. The study’s results offer useful context about reading habits, but they cannot answer the title’s question either.
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What the longer U.S. trend does—and doesn’t—show
Pew reported that the share of U.S. adults who read a print book was 72% in 2011 and 64% in October 2025. Read that as a comparison of reported print reading, not book completion. There is also a survey-mode change to keep in mind: Pew conducted the surveys by phone from 2011 through 2021, then used web and phone in 2025. The change is relevant context when comparing the endpoints.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Your last finished book is a better answer to the question
Think of the last paper book you remember finishing. Was it recent, or did you have to reach back a few years? If the title escapes you, try recalling where you read it or who gave it to you. That memory—not a survey about reading all or part of a book—is what answers the question.
Share the last paper book you finished, if you remember it. A title, an approximate date or even “I’m not sure” is a perfectly good response.
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