The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a study done in November and December of 2011 called “The Rise of e-Reading.”  Here are some of the main statistics:

• 21 percent of Americans have read an ebook.
• People prefer ebooks in a head-to-head competition except when they are reading to children or sharing books with others.
• A majority of readers prefer to buy, rather than borrow their books.  (54 percent of print readers and 61 percent ebook readers.)
• 80 percent of Americans 16 and older say they read, at least occasionally, for pleasure,  36 percent read for pleasure every day or almost every day.
• People read most frequently to keep up with current events. 78 percent of Americans say they read at least occasionally to keep up with current events while 50 percent say they do it daily or almost daily.
• 74 percent of Americans read at least occasionally to do reasearch on specific topics that interest them, 24 percent do it daily or almost daily.
• 56 percent of Americans say they read at least occasionally for work or school while 36 percent say they do it daily or almost daily.
• 48 percent of ebook readers bought the last book they read, 24 percent borrowed it from someone else, 14 percent borrowed it from a library and 13 percent borrowed it “from another source” aka they downloaded illegally from the internet.

Read the full Pew study.