Holy Bible Survey Results, American Bible Statistics

SURVEY SAYS....

• 47% of American adults believe the Bible has too little influence in society today; only 16% believe it has too much influence, with the remaining adults expressing neutral opinions (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• 55% read the Bible to be closer to God, down 9% (from 64%) in 2011 (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• 79% believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible but 54% were unable to correctly identify the first five books of the Bible  (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• 46% believe the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are different expressions of the same spiritual truths, 46% disagree (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• On average, 85% of U.S. households own a Bible; the average number of Bibles per household is 4.3 (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• 36% of Americans read the Bible less than once a year or never while 33% read the Bible once a week or more (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• Generational patterns emerged where younger adults are less likely to perceive the Bible as relevant and useful when compared with older adults (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• Sixty-two percent of adults age 66 and older believe the Bible contains everything a person needs to know about living a meaningful life, dropping to 54% among boomers (age 47 to 65), 44% among those age 28 to 46, and dropping even further to 34% for those age 18 to 27  (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2012)
• Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. adults (88%) say their household owns a Bible, with a median of 3.4 Bibles per household (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)  
• 54% of adults in America believe the Bible has too little influence in U.S. society today - more than four times the proportion of those who think it has too much influence (13%) (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• 56% of those surveyed said they consider themselves to have an average knowledge of the Bible, while 23% considered themselves to be completely or highly knowledge (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• 51% of adults in the U.S. strongly - but erroneously - believe that the Bible teaches God helps those who help themselves (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• Seven out of ten (69%) described the Bible as the Word of God (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• The proportion who never read the Bible increased (from 21% in 1999 to 25% in 2011), while the proportion of adults who read the Bible only once or twice a year decreased over the past decade, from 16% in 1999 to 11% in 2011 (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• Nearly six out of 10 adults who owns a Bible (57%) say they own the King James Version (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• Nearly half of all Bible readers (45%) read the King James Version most often (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• Nearly four in ten Bible-reading adults (37%) used a computer to read Bible content during the past year; 28% listened to an audio version of the Bible (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• Three out of four U.S. adults (76%) are able to correctly name Genesis as the first book of the Bible (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• A majority of Americans (57%) knows that Hebrew is the original language in which most of the Bible’s Old Testament was written. Fewer than half as many adults (27%) are able to name Greek as the original language in which most of the Bible’s New Testament was written (American Bible Society, The State of the Bible 2011)
• 60% of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments 
(USA Today, March 14, 2007)
• 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married 
(USA Today, March 14, 2007)
• 50% of Americans, including Christians, can't name any of the four Gospels 
(NPR, Feb. 8, 2008)
• 22% of American teens think Moses was either one of Jesus' 12 apostles, an Egyptian pharaoh or an angel (Bible Literacy Project, Inc., 2005)
• 21% of American believe the Bible is a book of fables (Gallup, May 2007)