The tastes of the reading public are turning digital.

A Pew Internet Research Center survey released Thursday found that the percentage of Americans aged 16 and older who read an e-book grew from 16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year.

Readers of traditional books dropped from 72 percent to 67 percent.

Overall, those reading books of any kind dropped from 78 percent to 75 percent, a shift Pew called statistically insignificant.

People with college degrees and higher incomes are most likely to read e-books.

“In the book-reading population, those most likely to read e-books include those with college or graduate degrees, those who live in households earning more than $75,000, and those whose ages fall between 30 and 49,” Pew reported.

Those owning an e-book device or tablet jumped from 18 percent to 33 percent, with much of that increase coming from last year’s holiday season, when millions received Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers as gifts.

Awareness that libraries offer digital texts grew from 24 percent to 31 percent.

Among book readers, Pew found:

  • 89% of the book readers said they had read a printed book. This translates into 67% of all those ages 16 and older.
  • 30% of the book readers said they had read an e-book. This translates into 23% of all those ages 16 and older.
  • 17% of the book readers said they had listened to an audio book. This translates into 13% of all those ages 16 and older.

“All told, those book readers consumed a mean (average) of 15 books in the previous 12 months and a median (midpoint) of 6 books — in other words, half had read fewer than six and half had read more than six,” Pew reported.

The breakdown:

  • 7% of Americans ages 16 and older read one book in the previous 12 months
  • 14% had read 2-3 books in that time block
  • 12% had read 4-5 books in that time block
  • 15% had read 6-10 books in that time block
  • 13% had read 11-20 books in that time block
  • 14% had read 21 or more books in that time block

The telephone survey of 2,252 people aged 16 and older was conducted from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.