What this page measures
Useful context, clearly bounded.
No national survey currently reports a standalone readership figure for historical fiction. Rather than invent one, this page tracks the larger U.S. reading and publishing measures that give the genre its context. Each figure links to its original source and publication date.
48.5%
of U.S. adults read at least one book in 2022
The National Endowment for the Arts counted print and electronic books in its 2022 survey, a 6.1 percentage-point drop from 2012.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2023 ↗37.6%
of U.S. adults read a novel or short story in 2022
That was the lowest rate recorded in the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, which has tracked reading for more than three decades.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2023 ↗17%
decline in novel and short-story reading from 2012 to 2022
The share of adults reading novels or short stories moved from 45.2% in 2012 to 37.6% in 2022.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2023 ↗53%
of U.S. adults read books or literature of some kind in 2022
This broader measure includes books and literature across formats, and was down from 57.1% in 2017.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2023 ↗$21.2B
in U.S. consumer-book revenue in 2024
Trade publishing, the consumer-book market that includes fiction, grew 4.4% from the prior year, according to the Association of American Publishers.
Source: Association of American Publishers, 2025 ↗72.9%
of 2024 trade revenue came from hardback and paperback books
Together, those print formats accounted for nearly three quarters of consumer-book publishing revenue.
Source: Association of American Publishers, 2025 ↗How to read these figures
Fiction readers are a broad audience, not a single genre count.
Historical fiction sits inside the wider market for novels and stories. The National Endowment for the Arts measures adults who say they read novels or short stories, not the genres they choose. The publishing figures describe revenue across consumer books, not historical fiction alone. That distinction matters when using these statistics in reporting, research, or commentary.
Methodology and sources
Primary sources, dated at the point of publication.
This reference page uses public figures from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Association of American Publishers. Percentages and revenue are reported as each source published them. The page will be reviewed when new national reading data or material publishing updates appear.
- National Endowment for the Arts, “New Data Reveal How Adults Participated in the Arts During COVID-19”, October 18, 2023. Results are from the 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, administered by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Association of American Publishers, “AAP StatShot Annual Report: Publishing Revenues Totaled $32.5 Billion for Calendar Year 2024”, August 26, 2025.
Cite this page
Michelle Elliott, “Historical Fiction Reading Statistics: U.S. Benchmarks,” updated October 20, 2026, https://michelleelliottwriter.com/historical-fiction-reading-statistics.
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