28 Blog Readership Statistics & Key Takeaways (for 2023)

This post is a collection of the latest blog readership statistics for 2023.

Remember, you need to deeply understand your audience in order to create content that will win their trust.

The statistics below will answer a bunch of key questions, like:

How many people read blog posts on the internet?
Why do people read blog posts?
What are the ways readers discover content?
When do people read blogs?

Let’s begin.

How many people read blogs?

A survey conducted by HubSpot revealed that 60% of internet users read blogs. With over 4.66 billion users on the web, that roughly translates to roughly 2.8 billion readers.

60% of people on the internet read blogs, whereas the remaining 40% never read one (HubSpot)

Of all people who read blogs, 39% do it 1-3 times per week while 11% read blogs every day (HubSpot)
10% of all people who read blogs do it 4-6 times per week (HubSpot)

How old are blog readers?

New data shows that the majority of blog readers are between 40 and 60 years of age. That’s in line with an old study conducted by Pingdom that says the average blog reader is 41 years old.

Although younger audiences also read blog posts, they’re more inclined to consume content from social media and video streaming sites.

More than 37% of blog readers are between 40 and 60 years of age (FinancesOnline)

17% and 10.3% of blog readers are in the age brackets of 25-30 and 19-24, respectively (FinancesOnline)
30% of blog readers are between the ages of 31 and 40 (FinancesOnline)
32% of readers believe that accurate content is the most important factor affecting content quality (Adobe Brand Content Survey)

Why do people read blogs?

People read blogs for a handful of reasons, like learning new skills, entertainment, and keeping up with the news. Others also like to utilize blogger recommendations to influence a purchase decision.

33% of people read blogs to learn something new (HubSpot)

20% of blog readers check out blogs for entertainment purposes (HubSpot)
12% of people refer to blogs to discover industry news and trends (HubSpot)
61% of U.S. consumers buy a product after reading a recommendation from a blog (IMPACT)

When do readers check blogs?

Data suggests that most people read blogs in the morning, specifically between 9AM and 10AM. Interestingly, male readers are more likely to check out blogs at night than female readers.

70% of readers prefer reading blog posts between 9AM and 10AM EST (Kissmetrics)

Male readers prefer reading in the evening and night (Kissmetrics)
Blog readers are more likely to leave comments on Saturdays around 9AM (Kissmetrics)

How do people read blogs?

Not everyone completely reads an entire blog post from top to bottom. In fact, statistics show that 80% of readers only read a blog post’s headline before moving on. A lot of readers also only keep reading a post for 96 seconds.

When readers decide to check a post from start to finish, chances are they’ll only skim it.

8 out of 10 readers check out a blog post’s headline (CopyBlogger)

Only 2 out of 10 readers will read the article (CopyBlogger)
43% of readers admit they only skim blog posts (HubSpot)
On average, a reader typically spends 96 seconds reading a blog post (ProBlogger)

How do blog readers discover new content?

Younger individuals prefer using a mobile device when browsing the web and reading blogs. Most of these users also find the content they want via Facebook and Google. And when using search engines, 75% will only check the first page for results, which are typically blog posts.

Only a small number of readers go directly to the blog they want to read from their browser’s address bar.

The majority of users still use Google to look for content, including people ages 18 to 24 (56%), 35 to 44 (53%), 45 to 54 (48%), and 55 and above (The Tree Group)

68% of readers between 18 and 24 prefer using their mobile device to browse the web (The Tree Group)
65% of readers between 25 and 34 years of age prefer browsing the web via a mobile device (The Tree Group)
56% of readers between 25 and 34 years of age passively discover content on their Facebook feeds (The Tree Group)
Only 33% of readers between 18 and 24 years of age go directly to a publication’s website to read content (The Tree Group)
75% of users only check the first page of Google’s search engine results (Performance Marketers)