Research

Report Reveals Exponential Growth in K–12 Digital Reading

• By Kate Lucariello
• 04/22/24

K–12 student reading platform Sora, a division of educational digital content provider OverDrive, has released its first report, "The State of K–12 Digital Reading," showing that student reading had increased exponentially during the 2022-23 school year over previous years.

"The report reveals compelling regional differences, double digit growth in Comics and Graphic Novels, and a surprising insight on which months tracked the most time spent reading," the platform reported.

The survey tracked the use of e-books, audiobooks, digital comics, and magazines from July 2022 through June 2023 from 62,000 schools worldwide using the Sora reading platform.

Key findings include:

• Digital reading grew 286% since 2019, with reading growth increasing by 12% just in 2022-23;
• Sora reading app sessions rose by over 8% the previous year, and total books read increased by 3%;
• Comics and graphic novel reading among all grades increased by over 56%;
• Series were most popular for all students, with young adults choosing "coming of age" themes especially;
• Comics and humor dominated several e-book fiction lists, and mysteries, biography/autobiography, and digital arts were the most popular nonfiction subjects;
• Humor was the fastest growing audiobook genre (+88%);
• E-books were the most popular reading format (84%), with comics and graphic novels their main genre, growing from 31% to 42% of checkouts;
• Despite having lower numbers of unique users, the highest average reading periods were during July (4.6 hours), followed by June (2.6 hours), and March (2.3 hours);
• Sora Sweet Reads, a summer reading program, grew 25% since 2019;
• The states with the most digital checkouts were Texas, New York, California, Utah, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts; and
• Device access to Sora was highest for desktops (57%), followed by iOS (32%), and Android (11%).

The report showed preferred genres varied by region: Northeast — sociology; Southeast and Southwest — sports and recreation; Midwest and West — young adult romance; and Pacific Northwest — nature.

"We loaned almost 136,000 titles in Sora in 2023 and had over 60,000 reading hours, and for a region with only 28,000 students that's a lot of reading," said Mary Ann Munroe, school library services and E-learning coordinator at Greater Southern Tier Board of Cooperative Educational Services in New York.

For more information, including genre trends and which titles students were reading, access the report here.