Every book & reading number, sourced.
Key takeaways
- 13,258 reading-list assignments across 47 U.S. states, covering 1,664 distinct books (our state reading-list data, snapshot Jul 21, 2026).
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio is the most-assigned book, with 148 assignments (our state reading-list data, snapshot Jul 21, 2026).
- 2012 is the median publication year of an assigned book (our state reading-list data, snapshot Jul 21, 2026, n = 13,258 assignments).
- 212 pages is the median length of an assigned book (our state reading-list data, snapshot Jul 21, 2026, n = 11,719 assignments with a known page count).
What Book Statistics is
Book Statistics is the reference layer of Figures Bureau, a data-publications studio. It publishes computed, source-verified book and reading numbers in lookup form — tables, definitions, per-year figures — built from an original dataset of 13,258 state reading-list assignments, each row carrying its own source URL and verification date.
Every figure is recomputed from the underlying dataset on every build. Numbers we cannot verify are omitted, never guessed — the methodology explains exactly how each statistic is computed and where the data comes from.
The reference library
- Book-by-book statistics (100 books) One page per book: page count, reading time, and where it sits on U.S. school reading lists.
- Most-assigned books, ranked The living top-50 table: which books U.S. reading lists assign most, with counts, states and grade bands.
- Assigned books statistics The whole corpus in reference form — top books and authors, grade-band split, publication eras, coverage and provenance.
- School reading list statistics How many states publish lists, how big they run, which grades they target, and how many sources back the data.
- Book length statistics Median assigned-book length for every grade K–12 — including the 3rd-grade cliff.
- Assigned book age statistics Publication years of the assigned canon, decade by decade — the dusty-classics story, tested.
- Reading statistics How many Americans read and how much — primary sources only, each dated and linked, anchored by the assigned-books corpus.
- Bestseller statistics The real odds of making the NYT bestseller list — copies needed, seasonality, and how fast books fall off.
On this site
- Data downloads Every table as a CORS-open CSV and every figure as a reusable SVG, CC BY 4.0 — reuse with a link.
- Methodology The dataset, the joins, the refresh cadence, and the zero-fabrication policy behind every number.
- About Who publishes Book Statistics, and what Figures Bureau is.
- Copyright & reuse The CC BY 4.0 terms, how to attribute, and the notice-and-takedown process.
The narrative studies
The stories behind these numbers are published as full data studies on readinglist.school, built from the same dataset:
- Reading Statistics 2026 The narrative study of the full assignment corpus.
- The Most-Assigned Books of 2026 Which books U.S. reading lists actually assign, ranked.
- How Old Are Assigned Books? The publication-year distribution behind the 'dusty classics' myth.
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Find books in the dataset
These are the three most-assigned titles in this snapshot. Check the edition, format and your school’s requirements before ordering.
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