The American Bible Society's 10th annual "State of the Bible" report released Wednesday revealed that only 9% of Americans read their Bible on a daily basis.
The report reveals findings from two separate surveys, one conducted in January with the Barna Group, and another in June. 2,010 and 3,020 Americans were polled, respectively.
When asked how often the respondent reads the Bible on their own, only 9% said they read it every day the lowest figure in the 10 years the group has been conducting the survey.

Quote:

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"From 2011 through 2019, the percentage of respondents who claim to read the Bible daily has remained fairly steady, averaging 13.7%," the report reads. "A decrease of 5% in a single year is unprecedented."

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Bible reading habits of Americans:

• Four or more times a week - 3%
• "Several times" a week - 10%
• Once a week - 9%
• Once a month - 9%
• Three to four times a year - 8%
• Once a year - 11%
• Never - 34%

Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the statement, "The Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life."

• 37% agreed strongly
• 31% agreed somewhat
• 32% disagreed with the statement

The surveys also asked participants about their beliefs concerning the Bible.

• 24% said the Bible is the actual Word of God and should be taken literally.
• 31% said some Scriptures are "meant to be symbolic rather than literal."
• 18% said the Bible is just "another book of teachings written by people that contains stories and advice."
• 15% said the Bible is the "inspired word of God but has some factual or historical errors."

BaylorFTW said:

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The American Bible Society's 10th annual "State of the Bible" report released Wednesday revealed that only 9% of Americans read their Bible on a daily basis.
The report reveals findings from two separate surveys, one conducted in January with the Barna Group, and another in June. 2,010 and 3,020 Americans were polled, respectively.
When asked how often the respondent reads the Bible on their own, only 9% said they read it every day the lowest figure in the 10 years the group has been conducting the survey.

Quote:

---

"From 2011 through 2019, the percentage of respondents who claim to read the Bible daily has remained fairly steady, averaging 13.7%," the report reads. "A decrease of 5% in a single year is unprecedented."

---

Bible reading habits of Americans:

• Four or more times a week - 3%
• "Several times" a week - 10%
• Once a week - 9%
• Once a month - 9%
• Three to four times a year - 8%
• Once a year - 11%
• Never - 34%

Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the statement, "The Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life."

• 37% agreed strongly
• 31% agreed somewhat
• 32% disagreed with the statement

The surveys also asked participants about their beliefs concerning the Bible.

• 24% said the Bible is the actual Word of God and should be taken literally.
• 31% said some Scriptures are "meant to be symbolic rather than literal."
• 18% said the Bible is just "another book of teachings written by people that contains stories and advice."
• 15% said the Bible is the "inspired word of God but has some factual or historical errors."

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A. The Bible has no errors.
B. I'm surprised that is as high as 9%.
C. That is a stupid question to give someone a choice if it is to be taken literally or not. Anyone knows there are times especially in historical context that it is literal and times especially in parables that it is a bit more figurative. To say an eye for an eye or it is easier for a rich man to fit through the eye of a needle than make it to Heaven is obviously NOT LITERAL.

This sounds more like a sexual activity survey with all the HOW MANY TIMES questions!

The percentages go down every year, Unfortunately.
If mom and Dad read it , the kids will.

wuzzybear said:

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BaylorFTW said:

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The American Bible Society's 10th annual "State of the Bible" report released Wednesday revealed that only 9% of Americans read their Bible on a daily basis.
The report reveals findings from two separate surveys, one conducted in January with the Barna Group, and another in June. 2,010 and 3,020 Americans were polled, respectively.
When asked how often the respondent reads the Bible on their own, only 9% said they read it every day the lowest figure in the 10 years the group has been conducting the survey.

Quote:

---

"From 2011 through 2019, the percentage of respondents who claim to read the Bible daily has remained fairly steady, averaging 13.7%," the report reads. "A decrease of 5% in a single year is unprecedented."

---

Bible reading habits of Americans:

• Four or more times a week - 3%
• "Several times" a week - 10%
• Once a week - 9%
• Once a month - 9%
• Three to four times a year - 8%
• Once a year - 11%
• Never - 34%

Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the statement, "The Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life."

• 37% agreed strongly
• 31% agreed somewhat
• 32% disagreed with the statement

The surveys also asked participants about their beliefs concerning the Bible.

• 24% said the Bible is the actual Word of God and should be taken literally.
• 31% said some Scriptures are "meant to be symbolic rather than literal."
• 18% said the Bible is just "another book of teachings written by people that contains stories and advice."
• 15% said the Bible is the "inspired word of God but has some factual or historical errors."

---

A. The Bible has no errors.
B. I'm surprised that is as high as 9%.
C. That is a stupid question to give someone a choice if it is to be taken literally or not. Anyone knows there are times especially in historical context that it is literal and times especially in parables that it is a bit more figurative. To say an eye for an eye or it is easier for a rich man to fit through the eye of a needle than make it to Heaven is obviously NOT LITERAL.

This sounds more like a sexual activity survey with all the HOW MANY TIMES questions!

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Yes, I didn't like the survey questions outside of how common they read the bible. I felt they didn't really tell us anything.

Some other stats I found from the actual report:

49% said the US would be worse off without the bible.
39% thought the US would be about the same without the bible.

59% of US adults wished they used the Bible more.

68% of US adults believe the Bible has everything you need to lead a meaningful life.

64% said their bible reading has remained the same but 22% say their bible reading has increased.

Your A and C are mutually exclusive. Either it is error free and, therefore, literal as it cannot be open to interpretation or it is not literal and, therefore, open to interpretation.

Imo

BaylorFTW said:

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The American Bible Society's 10th annual "State of the Bible" report released Wednesday revealed that only 9% of Americans read their Bible on a daily basis.
The report reveals findings from two separate surveys, one conducted in January with the Barna Group, and another in June. 2,010 and 3,020 Americans were polled, respectively.
When asked how often the respondent reads the Bible on their own, only 9% said they read it every day the lowest figure in the 10 years the group has been conducting the survey.

Quote:

---

"From 2011 through 2019, the percentage of respondents who claim to read the Bible daily has remained fairly steady, averaging 13.7%," the report reads. "A decrease of 5% in a single year is unprecedented."

---

Bible reading habits of Americans:

• Four or more times a week - 3%
• "Several times" a week - 10%
• Once a week - 9%
• Once a month - 9%
• Three to four times a year - 8%
• Once a year - 11%
• Never - 34%

Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the statement, "The Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life."

• 37% agreed strongly
• 31% agreed somewhat
• 32% disagreed with the statement

The surveys also asked participants about their beliefs concerning the Bible.

• 24% said the Bible is the actual Word of God and should be taken literally.
• 31% said some Scriptures are "meant to be symbolic rather than literal."
• 18% said the Bible is just "another book of teachings written by people that contains stories and advice."
• 15% said the Bible is the "inspired word of God but has some factual or historical errors."

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Supports my observation that most people affirm the authority of the Bible, but don't read it..

BornAgain said:

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The percentages go down every year, Unfortunately.
If mom and Dad read it , the kids will.

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If Mom and Dad aren't abusive.

What % of Americans read anything each day? I'm sure it's a depressingly low number.

nein51 said:

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Your A and C are mutually exclusive. Either it is error free and, therefore, literal as it cannot be open to interpretation or it is not literal and, therefore, open to interpretation.

Imo

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I have no problem with your response bc of course A and C are exclusive. However, I disagree with you with your making it ONLY a binary choice, ie., literal or NOT literal. The historical basis cannot be open to interpretation except as the words are translated from Hebrew and Greek into modern English. That part is definitely open to interpretation but only within the "literalness" of the event(s).

However, I don't think the NT is meant to be literal. Jesus was a teacher and teachers use figurative stories such as metaphors and allegories or for lack of a better word, stories, to convey something to us common folk to help us understand.

Obviously you cannot take Revelation literally, although you could make the argument that is in fact literal if you are reading it through the eyes of John who only had what he had in that time to describe what he saw in his vision. However, I do not think the millennium reign is a literal 1000 yrs bc like all things in the Bible involving time it is more or less in the ballpark of the time referred to. For instance, Jesus says that in the latter days and when the end is near THAT generation will not pass to the next when ALL of these things come to pass. That is as about as literal as you can get, but what is subject to interpretation is the word "generation." We tend to think of it as 20 yrs or so but in Jesus day it was more like 70 yrs. So which is it? I don't know and I don't need to know.

Anyway, I personally cannot say that I read it every day although I used to bc I set aside a definite time every evening to read one hour. But like I am sure a lot of people do things come up and that hour becomes 30 min and that 30 min become every other day to every 3 days and eventually to once per week. It doesn't diminish me or something like that, but I do feel a bit guilty bc of all things that is most important. So maybe this thread will get me back to my original schedule. It's weird bc I used to walk up the community center where there would be nobody but me around and sit on a picnic table and all I could hear around me was the wind, birds, and the distant whoosh of traffic. I miss that a lot.

Meh. Maybe they have a daily Bible study email they read every day but don't consider that as actually reading the Bible. As already noted, it's all about how the questions are asked.