Bible reading statistics measure several related behaviors: using Scripture personally, reading outside religious services, and reading or listening to religious texts. In the American Bible Society’s 2025 survey, 41% of U.S. adults were Bible Users, while Pew Research Center found that 22% read scripture outside services at least weekly in its 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. These measures are not interchangeable, but together they show the scale and variety of Bible engagement.
Table of contents
- How often Americans use the Bible
- Differences by Christian tradition and participation
- Generational, gender, regional, and racial patterns
- Digital Bible reading and access formats
- Reading frequency, ownership, and desire
- Bible reading in international context
How often Americans use the Bible
The American Bible Society defines a Bible User as a U.S. adult who connects with Scripture personally at least three times in a year, outside a large church service or Mass. That definition is broader than weekly reading, so it is useful for tracking general personal interaction with the Bible. The organization also notes that its January survey results often describe the preceding year. Figures below come from STATE OF THE BIBLE 2025.
The reported share of U.S. adults classified as Bible Users changed over the period measured:
| Year | U.S. adults classified as Bible Users |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 49% |
| 2020 | 48% |
| 2021 | 50% |
| 2022 | 40% |
| 2023 | 39% |
| 2024 | 38% |
| 2025 | 41% |
In 2025, the American Bible Society classified 41% of U.S. adults—about 110 million people—as Bible Users. Within that same survey, 25% of adults were weekly Bible Users, meaning they used the Bible at least once a week. At the other end of the frequency range, 38% said they never use the Bible.
Pew’s measure is narrower in one respect because it asks about reading scripture outside religious services. In the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, 22% of U.S. adults said they read scripture at least weekly, 7% did so once or twice a month, and 61% seldom or never read scripture outside services. The differences between these results reflect different wording and definitions, not a direct contradiction.
Differences by Christian tradition and participation
Bible use varies substantially across religious groups in the American Bible Society’s 2025 results. Evangelical Protestants had a 73% Bible User share, and Historically Black Protestants had a 72% share. Mainline Protestants were at 41%, while Roman Catholics were at 34%. The survey also reported Bible use among 5% of people identifying with no religion and 49% of respondents in its other-religion category.
The same survey showed an even wider spread when people were grouped by relationship to Christianity. Bible Use was reported among 16% of Non-Christians, 32% of Nominal Christians, 66% of Casual Christians, and 92% of Practicing Christians. These categories describe the American Bible Society’s own survey groupings and should not be treated as equivalent to denominational identities.
Older Pew figures provide additional tradition-specific context. In 2014, 63% of U.S. adults in the evangelical Protestant tradition said they read scripture outside religious services at least weekly. The corresponding figure was 61% among adults in the historically Black Protestant tradition and 25% among U.S. Catholics. These figures come from Pew’s Frequency of Reading tables.
Pew cautions that comparisons between its 2007 and 2014 telephone studies and the later 2023-24 study are not valid trend comparisons. The newer study was conducted mainly online and by paper, so the results should be read as measurements from different study designs and periods.
Generational, gender, regional, and racial patterns
The 2025 American Bible Society survey shows Bible use differing across geography and population groups. The U.S. South had the highest regional share, with 48% of adults classified as Bible Users. The West and Midwest each recorded 39%, while the Northeast recorded 33%.
By racial or ethnic group, 68% of Black American adults were Bible Users, the highest ethnic-group share reported in the survey. Hispanic American adults recorded 41%, Asian American adults 38%, and White American adults 37%. Overall male Bible Use was 42%, compared with 41% among women.
Generational measures show movement among younger adults in selected engagement categories. Millennials’ share of Bible Users rose from 30% in 2024 to 39% in 2025. The survey also reported Scripture Engagement increasing from 11% to 15% among Gen Z adults between 2024 and 2025, and from 12% to 17% among Millennials over the same period. These are year-to-year survey measurements; they do not establish a permanent generational trend by themselves.
The regional and demographic results are best used as descriptive comparisons. They indicate where survey respondents reported different levels of Bible connection during the measurement period, but they do not explain why those differences occurred.
Digital Bible reading and access formats
Digital access is a major part of Bible use for people who already interact with Scripture. Among U.S. Bible Users in 2025, 66% accessed the Bible digitally at least some of the time, according to STATE OF THE BIBLE 2025.
Among Bible Users who used digital platforms, the most commonly reported format was a Bible app, used most often by 62%. A Bible-based website was the most-used format for 30%, and YouTube for 27%. Podcasts or webcasts accounted for 21%, Facebook for 16%, and television or radio for 14%. Instagram and TikTok each accounted for 8%.
These percentages describe the platform used most often among digital Bible Users, so they should not be added together as a market-share total. A person may use several formats, while the question identifies the one used most often.
The survey also reported differences in monthly text access among “Movable Middle” digital Bible Users. Monthly text access ranged from 47% among Gen Z adults to 70% among Boomers+. This comparison concerns a defined subgroup and text access, rather than all Bible Users or all forms of Bible engagement.
Reading frequency, ownership, and desire
Frequency detail helps distinguish occasional contact from a regular reading habit. In a Pew survey of U.S. adults conducted December 4–18, 2017, respondents were asked about reading the Bible or another holy book outside religious services. The results were 3% several times a day, 8% once a day, 8% a few times a week, 3% once a week, and 8% a few times a month. The figures are reported in Pew’s Combined Topline.
The 2017 question included the Bible or another holy book, so these figures are not Bible-only estimates for every respondent. They are useful for describing reported religious-text reading frequency during that survey period, but they should not be presented as a current national Bible-reading rate.
The 2025 American Bible Society survey found that 77% of U.S. adults said they owned a Bible. Ownership was considerably more common than the share classified as Bible Users, illustrating why possession and personal use are separate measures. The survey also found that 51% of U.S. adults wished they read the Bible more. That desire was 88% among Scripture Engaged adults and 80% among the American Bible Society’s Movable Middle.
Taken together, these figures point to a substantial gap between access, current use, and desired use. A Bible can be present in a household without being used regularly, while people who already engage with Scripture may still want to read more often.
Bible reading in international context
International comparisons require special care because questions and religious contexts differ. In Pew’s 2019-2020 India survey, 78% of Indian Christians said they read or listened to scripture at least weekly. The same survey reported at least-weekly reading or listening to religious books among 70% of Indian Sikhs, 56% of Indian Jains, and 53% of Indian Muslims. The source is Pew’s Religious practices in India.
Pew’s India question asked about reading or listening to religious books and gave Christians the Bible as the example. The non-Christian figures therefore provide international religious-text context, not estimates of Bible reading.
The American Bible Society also compared selected secular Western countries in its 2025 report. It found that 28% of U.S. adults used the Bible a few times a week or more, compared with 8% of adults in France. This comparison uses a different frequency threshold from the Bible User definition and should be interpreted as a specific cross-country measure, not a universal ranking of Bible engagement.
For readers looking at Bible reading statistics, the clearest pattern is that the result depends on what is measured: personal contact at least three times a year, weekly reading outside services, digital access, ownership, or a desire to read more. Keeping those definitions, dates, populations, and geographies visible makes the figures meaningful without treating unlike surveys as one continuous series.