Groups or government officials initiated 92% of challenges, and two-thirds overall ended in removals, according to an American Library Association report.
- Less than 3% of book challenges in 2025 came from parents, and a full 92% were initiated by groupsor government officials, according to an analysis of book challenges at public, school and college libraries published Monday by the American Library Association. The remaining 5% came from library users or unknown sources.
- The percentage of challenges originating with sources other than individual parents jumped from 2024, when it stood at 72%.
- Some two-thirds of the challenged books, or about 5,668, went on to be banned, and anadditional 920 titles were restricted in some way. That’s the highest number of titles censored in a single year and highest rate of censorship recorded between 1990 and 2025, according to ALA.
Dive Insight:
Of the challenged titles, 40% reflected LGBTQIA+ experiences and the experiences of Black and Indigenous people, and people of color, according to the ALA analysis.
The top-most challenged book was “Sold” by Patricia McCormick, a novel about a Nepali teenager who is sold into India’s sex slave trade.