American kids are spending less and less of their free time with books—and a sweeping federal study suggests it is taking a measurable toll on their ability to read and do math. The data, reported by NBC News Wednesday, comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, which has been testing 9 and 13-year-olds nationwide since the 1970s and surveyed more than 30,000 students for its latest round. Among teenagers, the proportion reading for pleasure has nearly halved since 2012. Younger children are holding up better but still slipping—just 37 percent of nine-year-olds said they read for fun almost every day in 2025, down from 42 percent in 2020 and 53 percent in 1984. Acting NCES commissioner Matthew Soldner said the trend predates the pandemic and demands an explanation. “With a significant decline starting in 2012, we can clearly see that this isn’t just a pandemic story,” he told NBC News. “That should be used to inspire further investigation and more work.” The consequences show up in test scores, as kids who read in their own time consistently outperform those who don’t, the report found, yet reading and math results for both age groups have been sliding since 2012. Officials and researchers have pointed to screens as a likely culprit—a 2024 CDC study found that more than half of 12- to 17-year-olds were logging four or more hours of daily screen time.
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