How Many People Listen to Audiobooks?
How many people listen to audiobooks? About one in four American adults did in the past year, more than double 2011. Here are the numbers.
About one in four American adults listened to an audiobook in the past year. In 2011 it was about one in nine. That is the short answer to how many people listen to audiobooks, and the rest of this piece walks through what sits behind it.
What the infographic shows
In the infographic above you will see three formats side by side, each with two bars: a lighter bar for 2011 and a gold bar for 2025. Print is the longest pair. E-books and audiobooks are shorter, but their gold bars are far longer than their lighter ones. On the right, three cards pull out the headline numbers.
- Print: 72% of US adults read a print book in 2011, and 64% did in 2025. It slipped, and it is still the format most adults use.
- E-books: 17% in 2011, 31% in 2025. Nearly double.
- Audiobooks: 11% in 2011, 26% in 2025. That is about 2.4 times as many listeners.
- Overall: 75% of US adults read or listened to at least one book in the past year.
The figures come from the Pew Research Center, which surveyed 8,046 US adults in October 2025 and asked which formats they had used in the previous twelve months. Pew also notes that e-book and audiobook use have moved little since its previous round of the same questions in 2021, so the big change is over the longer span.
Why audio kept growing
An audiobook fits into time that reading cannot: a commute, a walk, the washing up. It also removes the barrier of eyesight, of a long day, or of a language you speak better than you read. Phones made it effortless to carry a whole shelf in a pocket, which is the main thing that changed between 2011 and now.
Reading and listening are not rivals
The numbers do not show listeners abandoning print. Print is down by eight points while audio is up by fifteen, so the two are not simply trading places. For many readers, formats are a matter of the moment: paper at bedtime, audio in the car. A library that offers both lets people pick up a story wherever they left it.
Where WonderBooks fits
WonderBooks is a library of illustrated books, and many of them can be listened to as well as read, in more than one language. We build it as one founder directing the writing, the pictures and the narration, so a reader can follow the same story with their eyes or their ears.
What to take from it
Audio has gone from a niche to something about a quarter of American adults use in a year, while print remains the common ground. If you are choosing how to share a book, the safest answer is the one that offers more than one way in.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people listen to audiobooks?
In a Pew Research Center survey of 8,046 US adults in October 2025, 26% said they had listened to an audiobook in the past twelve months, up from 11% in 2011.
Are audiobooks replacing print books?
Not on these numbers. Print is still the most common format at 64% of US adults, down eight points since 2011, while audiobooks rose fifteen points over the same span.
Do more people read e-books or listen to audiobooks?
E-books are used by a few more adults than audiobooks: 31% against 26% in the 2025 survey. Both have grown since 2011.