wfn.org | Many Young People Still Read the Bible

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Date: 8-Jun-96 
 
96230         Many Young People Still Read the Bible 
 
            by George H. Gallup Jr. and Robert Bezilla 
          Produced by New York Times Special Features 
           Distributed by United Methodist News Service 
 
PRINCETON, N.J.--Most teenagers in this country read the Bible at least 
once a month, according to recent interviews by the Gallup organization. 
 
     Included among current readers are 10 percent who claim daily 
readership, 28 percent who read it at least weekly and another 15 percent 
who say they read scripture at least monthly.  
 
     An additional 16 percent say they read it infrequently and 31 percent 
say they never look at it. 
 
     This represents a decline of 7 percentage points since 1988 in the 
number of teenagers who say they read the Bible. 
 
     Bible readership is strongest in the Midwest and South and weakest in 
the East and West. Across the country, young people living in small towns 
and rural areas are more likely to read it than those residing in large 
cities and their suburbs. 
 
     Young Protestants, whose denominations generally emphasize independent 
Bible study, are more likely than Roman Catholics to report frequent Bible 
reading. 
 
     Among those who have not been to church recently, half say they never 
read the Bible. Readership also tends to become less frequent as teens grow 
older. 
 
     The findings are based on a nationwide sample of 507 teenagers, aged 
13-17, interviewed during the period from November 1995 to February 1996. 
The margin of error could be 4 percentage points in either direction. 

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