• From 1993 to 1995 (the first two years for which data are available), the share of children ages 3–5 (not yet in kindergarten) who were read to three or more times per week by a family member increased by a statistically significant amount (from 78% to 84%; Indicator V-02a). Over the next 26 years, however, the share held steady. (The year-to-year changes depicted in the graph are not statistically significant. For the standard errors needed to determine whether year-to-year changes are statistically significant, please see http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/ed1.asp.)

• When the data are disaggregated by the education level of the mother, variation over time appears to be greater, but few of the inter-year differences are statistically significant. However, the 11 percentage point increase in the shares of mothers without a high school diploma reading to small children from 1993 to 2019 is both practically and statistically significant.

• The likelihood of a young child being read to on a regular basis by a family member increases with the educational level of their mother. Throughout the 1993–2019 time period, at least 90% of young children whose mothers possessed at least a bachelor’s degree were read to a minimum of three times per week, while the proportion peaked at 71% for the children of mothers who had not completed high school (in 2012).

For information on other family characteristics and their correlation with family reading, select from the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the data visualization window below.