According to the American Bible Society’s 2021 State of the Bible study, more Americans read the Bible this year than in the past few years.
The annual study, which was released last week, revealed that 50 percent of Americans (128 million people) were Bible users – meaning that they either read, prayed, or listened to the Bible at least three to four times a year apart from an event or church service.
This year’s numbers are the second highest in a decade, behind the ABS’s 2014 study (129 million people) and tied for the third-highest percentage since the initial study in 2011.
As reported by Lifeway Research, the 2021 findings are substantially higher than last summer’s number of Bible users when 48 percent or 123 million people reported reading their Bible.
As a whole, 11 percent of Americans say they interact with the Scriptures daily, 5 percent say they do so 4 to 6 times a week, 9 percent say several times a week and another 9 percent say once a week.
Additionally, 8 percent say they read the Bible once a month, and another 8 percent say they turn to it three to four times a year.
On most days during the week, one in 6 Americans (16 percent) read the Word in 2021, up from 12 percent last year. Moreover, 8 percent engaged with the Bible once or twice a year, while 13 percent reported reading the Bible less than once a year.
According to the ABS study, there was a decline in the number of Americans who said they had never read the Bible. In 2019, 35 percent reported never having read the Word, but that dropped to 31 percent in 2020 and then to 29 percent in 2021.
Altogether, this past year saw 181 million Americans opening up their Bible, a 7.1 percent increase from 2020 (169 million).
As Christian Headlines previously reported, the ABS 2021 study also revealed that evangelicals have a higher percentage of “practicing” Christians than any other mainline denomination.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. He is also the co-hosts of the For Your Soul podcast, which seeks to equip the church with biblical truth and sound doctrine. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.