Americans are reading less and reading skills are deteriorating, especially among young people, according to a comprehensive U.S.-wide study of reading skills by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

The study found only 52 per cent of Americans aged 18 to 24 read a book voluntarily in 2002, down from 59 per cent a decade earlier.

The slide is even sharper among younger readers — less than one-third of 13-year-olds read every day, down 14 per cent in the last 20 years.

At the same time, reading scores for American adults have deteriorated, even among well-educated people.

The number of adults with bachelor's degrees considered proficient in reading prose dropped from 40 per cent in 1992 to 31 per cent in 2003.

Nearly two-thirds of employers ranked reading comprehension as "very important," yet 38 per cent consider most high school graduates deficient in this basic skill.

The gap between male and female readers is widening, with males in the 12th grade averaging 13 points lower than females, more than in 1992.

The study, To Read or Not to Read, is based on data collected from government, academic and foundation studies on reading and reading comprehension.

The sole bright spot was among nine-year-olds, whose reading scores have soared since the 1990s, with 54 per cent of them reporting they read every day for fun.

"I think there's been an enormous investment in teaching kids to read in elementary school," said NEA chairman Dana Gioia.

"Kids are doing better at nine and at 11. At 13, they're doing no worse, but then you see this catastrophic falloff … If kids are put into this electronic culture without any counterbalancing efforts, they will stop reading."

Readers more active citizens

Gioia said she fears the next generation of its citizens is at risk because of poor reading skills.

People who read are more likely to exercise, visit art museums, keep up with current events, vote in presidential elections and perform volunteer work, she said.

"This should explode the notion that reading is somehow a passive activity," Gioia said. "Reading creates people who are more active by any measure.… People who don't read, who spend more of their time watching TV or on the internet, playing video games, seem to be significantly more passive."

She called for changes in the way American children are educated, especially in high school, to emphasize reading skills.

American 15-year-olds ranked 15th in average reading scores for 31 industrialized nations, behind Poland, Korea, France and Canada. Canada ranked second, behind Finland, in literacy skills in a 2003 survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).

However, Canadian researchers have found a similar gap between male and female students in reading comprehension, with the boys left behind.

With files from the Associated Press