Those who report the highest levels of interest in the Bible include women and people from the southern part of the United States. Although about six in ten Americans report reading the Bible at least on occasion, most of these people are exploring the text without the help of a Bible study group of any kind. Bible readership varies significantly by a number of important subgroups. Marital status has little relationship with readership of the Bible. White Americans are less likely to read the Bible than are nonwhite Americans.
Older people are more likely to read the Bible than are younger people.
Thirty-six percent of people in their 30s and 40s read the Bible that frequently. Political attitudes also appear to shape Bible-reading tendencies. Conservatives are more likely than moderates and liberals to read the Bible frequently. For results based on the whole sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus 3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.