Study: Reading Completion Rate Correlates with Reader’s Age
Finishing a book depends a great deal on a reader’s age, according to a study by Jellybooks. In most cases, completion rates were higher for readers under 35 and those older than 45. Readers between those two groups had the lowest completion rate.
“We believe that this maybe the most time-pressed demographic,” explained Jellybooks founder Andrew Rhomberg in an article for Digital World. “This audience may be susceptible to social media, Netflix, and the like, and combined with raising a family and dealing with other distractions, they may have little time for reading.”
Jellybooks is a U.K.-based company that surveys reading habits and book discoverability. One test focused on a debut literary novel, which was a bestseller in Germany for many weeks. The test showed that women older than 45 were 15 percent more likely to finish reading a book than the average reader. Meanwhile, readers under 35 were 10 percent less likely than the average to finish this bestselling book.
Reading Research Results
Here are the other results of Jellybooks’ survey:
- Readers between ages 35 and 45, the age group with a high disposable income, devour books about the complexities of adult life.
- In a test of a young adult novel, readers over 45 had a significantly higher completion rate than those under 35.
- In another test involving a YA novel, the book performed poorly in general, but it had a completion rate three times higher for women under 25 than women over 45.
“In summary, some books seem to be universally appealing and have completion rates that do not vary with age, while the majority of books show marked differences in completion rates that correlate with age,” said Rhomberg.
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Read the full article by Andrew Rhomberg:
Read other stories about Jellybooks:
Study Shows Men Give Up on Books Sooner than Women
Study Shows Readers Judge a Book by its Cover
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