More than a quarter of Americans are currently buying eBooks and 49.8 percent of Americans are expected to be buying eBooks by the end of the year, according to new metrics published by Bookboon, a Danish website dedicated to free eBooks.

The report, which surveyed more than 5,678 Americans on their opinions and adoption habits of eBooks, also found that eBook consumers will grow by 84 percent over the next year. Almost a quarter of Americans expect to buy their first eBook in 2013, and that number is higher for tablet owners, as 30 percent of this audience expect to buy their first eBook this year. According to Bookboon, 27.1 percent of tablet owners are currently buying eBooks, and this is expected to grow to 49.8 percent of the population in 2013.

Device adoption will help encourage eBook sales. Almost 18 percent of those people surveyed said that they expect to buy a tablet or eReader in 2013. 
Almost half (49.3 percent) already own a tablet and/or an eReader, and 17.8 percent of Americans who do not own an eReading device said that they expect to buy one within the next year.

Three years from now, 57.7 percent of those surveyed expect that more than half of the books they read will be digital. Only 15.5 percent of readers said that they expect not to read eBooks at all.