Few questions reveal more about American spiritual life than a simple one: how often do people actually open the Bible? The answer in 2026 is more interesting than at any point in recent memory. After a quarter-century slide that bottomed out in 2024, Bible reading is staging a measurable comeback — and the people driving it are the ones researchers least expected. This is a data-driven look at who reads scripture, how often, on what device, and what they believe about the book in their hands, drawn entirely from the American Bible Society, Pew Research Center, Gallup, Barna Group, and Lifeway Research.

41%of U.S. adults are “Bible Users” in 2025, up from 38% the year before (American Bible Society)

42%read the Bible weekly in 2025, rebounding from a 25-year low of 30% (Barna)

51%of all Americans wish they read the Bible more (American Bible Society)

77%of Americans own at least one Bible (Lifeway / State of the Bible)

Key takeaways

The decline reversed. Weekly Bible reading fell to a 25-year low of 30% in 2024, then jumped to 42% in 2025 — a 12-point swing in a single year, according to Barna.
Young adults are leading. Gen Z weekly reading rose from 30% to 49% and Millennials from 34% to 50% between 2024 and 2025, while Boomers slipped to 31% (Barna).
Bible Use is up. The American Bible Society counts 41% of adults as Bible Users in 2025, up from 38% — roughly 10 million more adults reading outside of church.
The gender gap narrowed. Men's Bible Use rose 19% year over year, the fastest catch-up in years (American Bible Society).
Weekly reading is still a minority habit. Pew finds just 22% of U.S. adults read scripture at least weekly outside of services, and 61% seldom or never do (Pew, 2023–24).
Reading is going digital. Two-thirds of Bible Users now access scripture digitally at least sometimes, and 62% use a Bible app (State of the Bible).
Belief is shifting. A record-low 20% of Americans call the Bible the literal word of God, while a record-high 29% see it as fables and history written by man (Gallup).

How many Americans read the Bible?

The American Bible Society's headline measure is the “Bible User” — anyone who reads, listens to, or prays with the Bible on their own at least three times a year, outside of a worship service. In its 2025 State of the Bible report, that figure climbed to 41% of U.S. adults, up from 38% in 2024 — an increase the report translates to about 10 million more American adults picking up scripture on their own.

That rebound is notable because Bible Use had been sliding. The same research tradition recorded Bible Use near 50% from 2011 through 2021 before it dropped to roughly 40% in 2022 and lingered there, per Lifeway's summary of the data. The 2025 uptick is the first clear upward move in several years.

How often do Americans read scripture?

Frequency tells a more sober story than ownership. Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study — a survey of more than 36,000 adults — found that just 22% of U.S. adults read scripture outside of religious services at least once a week. A clear majority, 61%, say they seldom or never do.

The gap between the American Bible Society's 41% and Pew's 22% is not a contradiction — it reflects the bar each sets. ABS counts any private use at least three times a year; Pew measures a sustained weekly habit. Together they sketch a population where casual engagement is common but disciplined, regular reading remains the practice of a committed minority.

The 2025 rebound, in numbers

Barna Group's long-running tracking, built on more than 138,000 interviews over 25 years, captured the turnaround most vividly. Weekly Bible reading stood at 39% of adults in 2000, then drifted down for two decades to a low of 30% in 2024. In 2025 it snapped back to 42% — a 12-point jump in a single year, and the strongest reading the series has shown since the early 2000s. Among self-identified Christians, the 2025 figure reaches 50%.

Gen Z and Millennials are driving the comeback

The most surprising finding is generational. For years, older Americans read the Bible most; now the youngest adults are pulling ahead. Barna reports that weekly Bible reading among Gen Z rose from 30% in 2024 to 49% in 2025, and among Millennials from 34% to 50% — jumps of 19 and 16 points. Gen X sits at 41%, while Boomers, once the most engaged at a 2010 peak of 49%, have fallen to 31%, the lowest of any generation.

Generation	Weekly Bible reading, 2024	Weekly Bible reading, 2025
Gen Z	30%	49%
Millennials	34%	50%

Source: Barna Group, Bible Reading Trends (2025). The American Bible Society's parallel “Scripture Engaged” measure tells the same story, rising from 11% to 15% for Gen Z and 12% to 17% for Millennials.

Where each generation stands today

Looking only at 2025, the rank order has inverted from what it was a decade ago. Younger adults now read scripture weekly at higher rates than their parents.

Millennials50%

Gen Z49%

Gen X41%

Boomers31%

Weekly Bible reading by generation, 2025. Source: Barna Group.

The gender gap is closing

Women have historically read the Bible more than men, but 2025 narrowed that long-standing gap. The American Bible Society found that men's Bible Use rose 19% year over year, and Millennials overall saw a 29% increase — movement researchers described as surprising and concentrated among younger men. In the State of the Bible's 2025 figures, 41% of men and 42% of women qualify as Bible Users — nearly even.

Bible ownership and how people access scripture

Owning a Bible remains near-universal even as reading lags. Lifeway's reading of the State of the Bible data shows 77% of Americans own at least one Bible, up from 74% in 2024. But the format is shifting fast: roughly one-third of Bible Users read print only, while two-thirds access scripture digitally at least sometimes, and 62% of digital users rely on a Bible app. The page has not disappeared, but the screen is now where much of America meets the text.

Scripture Engagement rises with commitment

Not all reading is equal. The American Bible Society's “Scripture Engaged” category captures people for whom the Bible shapes choices and relationships, not just occasional reading. Engagement climbs sharply with the depth of someone's faith commitment: 68% of practicing Christians are Scripture Engaged, compared with 23% of casual Christians and just 8% of nominal Christians, per Lifeway's analysis. Overall, about one in five Americans (20%) now qualify as Bible Engaged, up from 18% the prior year.

How Americans actually read the Bible

Among those who do read, the methods are strikingly varied — there is no single dominant approach. Lifeway found that 34% systematically read sections daily, 34% look up suggested verses, 33% search out passages for a personal need, 27% reread favorite sections, 25% open randomly, and 24% look up verses to help someone else. Most readers, in other words, mix a planned practice with in-the-moment searching.

What Americans believe about the Bible

Belief about the Bible's nature has shifted markedly over the past two decades. In Gallup's most recent reading on the question, a record-low 20% of Americans say the Bible is the literal word of God, while a record-high 29% call it a book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man. The largest group, 49%, takes the middle view that it is the inspired word of God but not everything should be taken literally.

View of the Bible	Share of U.S. adults
Literal word of God	20%
Inspired word of God, but not all literal	49%
Fables, legends, history recorded by man	29%

Source: Gallup, Values and Beliefs survey. For historical context, three-quarters of Americans once viewed the Bible as the word of God in some form. Even so, Lifeway notes Americans still rate scripture positively: 55% call it a good source of morals, 48% call it true, and 45% say it is life-changing.

Bible reading by religious tradition

Where someone worships predicts how often they read. Pew's 2023–24 study shows weekly scripture reading is far above the national 22% inside certain traditions and far below it elsewhere.

Religious tradition	Read scripture weekly (outside services)
Latter-day Saints	59%
Evangelical Protestants	51%
Historically Black Protestants	46%
All U.S. adults	22%

Source: Pew Research Center, 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study.

The desire gap: wishing versus doing

One of the most human findings in the data is the distance between intention and habit. Across the whole country, 51% of Americans say they wish they read the Bible more. Among the “Movable Middle” — people who are curious but not yet committed readers — that figure climbs to 80%, and 82% say they are curious about the Bible or about Jesus, according to the State of the Bible. The appetite is real; what most people lack is a rhythm and a way in.

How churches encourage Bible reading

Pastors are nearly unanimous in pushing personal scripture reading, and they use many levers at once. Lifeway reports that 99% of Protestant pastors encourage personal Bible reading, deploying an average of five different methods: 93% provide free Bibles, 92% give sermon reminders, 73% add extra readings during worship, 59% distribute printed reading plans, and 56% send social-media reminders.

Why the rebound matters

The American Bible Society's 2025 research went beyond counting readers to ask what reading does. It found that Scripture Engagement is associated with measurably higher human flourishing — greater hope and lower loneliness — with the strongest effects among Gen Z and Millennials. That helps explain why a generation often described as the loneliest is also the one returning to the text fastest. For the broader trend, researchers caution that one strong year is not yet a durable trajectory; Pew's parallel finding that the long decline in Christian practice has slowed and may be leveling off offers cautious support that the rebound could hold.

The bottom line

The numbers paint a clear picture for 2026: more Americans own a Bible than read it, far more wish they read it than actually do, and the people closing that gap fastest are young adults reading on their phones. The barrier is rarely access — 77% own a Bible and two-thirds read digitally — it is consistency. A 51% “wish I read more” figure is, at bottom, a habit problem.

That is the gap HolyJot is built to close. By pairing online Bible reading with guided devotional plans, journaling prompts, and gentle reminders, HolyJot turns the widespread intention to read more into a sustainable daily rhythm — meeting the two-thirds of readers who now prefer a screen exactly where the data says they already are. The 2025 rebound shows the desire is there; the work is helping it become a practice.

Bible Reading Statistics (2026)