Bible ownership remains widespread in the United States, although reported household ownership has varied across survey years. American Bible Society research also shows that ownership differs by generation, religious connection, and engagement, while more recent data describes how Bible users access Scripture digitally and in print.
Table of contents
- U.S. household Bible ownership over time
- Ownership by generation, race, ethnicity, and gender
- Ownership and religious connection
- Access in an understandable language and format
- How many Bibles Bible-owning households have
- Buying and replacing Bibles
- Recent print and digital access
U.S. household Bible ownership over time
The American Bible Society’s State of the Bible 2019 report presents a long-running series of U.S. household ownership measures. These figures describe whether respondents reported that their household owned a Bible; they are not estimates of the number of individual copies in the country.
| Year | U.S. households reporting Bible ownership |
|---|---|
| 1993 | 92% |
| 2011 | 88% |
| 2012 | 85% |
| 2013 | 88% |
| 2014 | 88% |
| 2015 | 88% |
| 2016 | 86% |
| 2017 | 87% |
| 2018 | 82% |
| 2019 | 84% |
The highest figure in this supplied series is 92% in 1993. The measure was 88% in 2011, fell to 85% in 2012, and returned to 88% in each of 2013, 2014, and 2015. It then stood at 86% in 2016, 87% in 2017, 82% in 2018, and 84% in 2019. All figures in this section come from State of the Bible 2019 and refer to U.S. household ownership.State of the Bible 2019
The year-to-year movement should be read as a sequence of survey results, not as a precise annual count of copies. The report’s ownership tables measure household ownership, so they do not establish how many people in a household personally own or use a Bible. They also do not show whether a Bible is printed, digital, new, inherited, or purchased recently.
Ownership by generation, race, ethnicity, and gender
The 2019 report also breaks household Bible ownership down by demographic groups. In these results, older generations reported higher household ownership than younger generations. Elders reported the highest rate among the listed generations at 94%, followed by Boomers at 87%, Gen X at 83%, and Millennials at 79%.
| Group | Household Bible ownership in 2019 |
|---|---|
| Elders | 94% |
| Boomers | 87% |
| Gen X | 83% |
| Millennials | 79% |
| Black adults | 89% |
| White adults | 84% |
| Hispanic adults | 84% |
| Men | 83% |
| Women | 85% |
By race and ethnicity, 89% of Black adults reported that their household owned a Bible in 2019. The corresponding figures were 84% for White adults and 84% for Hispanic adults. The report also listed 84% for all non-White adults. These categories are reported as survey groupings; they should not be treated as explanations for why individuals or households do or do not own a Bible.
The gender figures were close: 83% of men and 85% of women reported household Bible ownership in 2019. Taken together, these results show that ownership was common across every listed demographic group, while the measured rates still varied between groups. The source for all figures in this section is State of the Bible 2019.State of the Bible 2019
Ownership and religious connection
Household ownership was especially high among respondents connected to church attendance or Bible engagement. In 2019, 99% of weekly church attenders reported household Bible ownership. The same 99% figure was reported for Bible friendlies and Bible-engaged adults. Bible users reported a 98% household ownership rate, while monthly church attenders who did not attend weekly reported 97%.
The report also recorded 97% among Bible-centered adults and 95% among self-identified Christians. These figures describe reported household ownership within each survey population. They do not mean that every person in those groups personally owned a Bible or used it at the same frequency.
Ownership was lower among groups described by the report as having weaker or more distant connections to the Bible. Fifty percent of atheists and agnostics reported household Bible ownership, compared with 52% of Bible skeptics and 66% of non-Bible users. Even in these groups, the measure indicates that some households reported owning a Bible despite limited personal use or skepticism.
The contrast can be read alongside the broader 2019 household figure of 84%. The church-attendance and Bible-engagement measures were higher than the overall household measure, while the atheists-and-agnostics, Bible-skeptic, and non-Bible-user measures were lower. The categories come from the definitions and groupings used in State of the Bible 2019, so they should not be assumed to be interchangeable.State of the Bible 2019
Access in an understandable language and format
Ownership alone does not show whether a Bible is usable for a particular reader. A separate 2019 table asked about having a Bible in a language and format the respondent could understand. Among all adults, 82% reported having access in a language and format they could understand. The table included people who did not own a Bible, so this measure is not limited to Bible-owning households.
Among Bible-centered adults, 95% reported having a Bible in an understandable language and format. The figure was 98% among Bible-engaged adults and 97% among Bible-friendly adults. Bible-neutral adults recorded 94%, while Bible-disengaged adults recorded 65%. Bible skeptics recorded 50%, and Millennials recorded 75%.
| 2019 group | Understandable language and format |
|---|---|
| All adults | 82% |
| Bible-centered adults | 95% |
| Bible-engaged adults | 98% |
| Bible-friendly adults | 97% |
| Bible-neutral adults | 94% |
| Bible-disengaged adults | 65% |
| Bible skeptics | 50% |
| Millennials | 75% |
These results distinguish access from ownership. A household may report owning a Bible, yet the available edition or format may not be understandable to every person who could use it. Conversely, the table’s all-adults measure can include respondents who did not report household ownership. The language-and-format figures are from State of the Bible 2019.State of the Bible 2019
How many Bibles Bible-owning households have
The American Bible Society’s State of the Bible 2016 report measured the number of Bibles among Bible-owning households. Those households reported a median of 3 Bibles and a mean of 4.7 Bibles. The median means that the middle reported household had 3 copies; the mean is the arithmetic average reported in the survey.
The distribution was: 18% of Bible-owning households owned one Bible, 33% owned two to three, 24% owned four to five, and 25% owned more than five. These groups describe the number of copies in Bible-owning households in the 2016 survey population, not the percentage of all U.S. households.
Practicing Protestant and practicing Catholic households showed a marked difference in the share reporting more than five Bibles. Among practicing Protestant households that owned a Bible, 51% had more than five. The corresponding figure among practicing Catholic households that owned a Bible was 9%.
Because the report provides both a median and a mean, the results suggest that a smaller group of households with many copies raises the average above the midpoint. That is a description of the reported distribution, not a separate estimate of the total number of Bibles in the United States. All figures here are from the 2016 survey report.State of the Bible 2016
Buying and replacing Bibles
Bible ownership statistics also include recent purchasing activity. In the 2016 survey, 16% of Americans reported purchasing a Bible within the previous year. The prior-year comparison reported 13% in the 2015 survey. The measurement is purchase activity during the preceding year, not the percentage of Americans who owned a Bible.
Purchase activity varied across the groups listed in the report. Twenty-one percent of Gen X adults had purchased a Bible within the previous year in the 2016 survey. The rate was 27% among practicing Protestants and 10% among non-practicing Christians.
| 2016 survey population | Purchased a Bible within the previous year |
|---|---|
| Americans | 16% |
| Gen X adults | 21% |
| Practicing Protestants | 27% |
| Non-practicing Christians | 10% |
The 2015 comparison was 13% for Americans, while the 2016 survey result was 16%. The available figures do not identify whether purchases were replacements, additional household copies, gifts, study editions, or digital products. They also do not support a calculation of total units sold. The source for these purchase measures is State of the Bible 2016.State of the Bible 2016
Recent print and digital access
The newest figures in this set measure Bible use and access rather than household ownership. In 2025, 41% of American adults were Bible users, according to State of the Bible USA 2025 — Chapter 1 Highlights. The report states that there were 10 million more American adults who were Bible users in 2025 than in 2024.
The report defines Bible users as individuals who interact with the Bible on their own at least three times a year. This definition is different from household ownership, so the 41% figure should not be compared as though it were another ownership percentage.
Among Bible users in 2025, 66% accessed the Bible digitally and 34% accessed it only in print. Among digital Bible users, 62% used a Bible app and 30% used a Bible-based website. These channel figures describe how users accessed the Bible; they do not indicate that print-only users lacked digital devices or that digital users did not also own printed Bibles.
The 2025 measures provide current context for a question that older ownership surveys cannot answer by themselves: how people interact with Scripture now. Household ownership remained the focus of the 2019 tables, while the 2025 report focused on individual Bible use and access channels. Keeping those scopes separate makes the statistics easier to interpret.State of the Bible USA 2025 — Chapter 1 Highlights