As of: March 7, 2024, 3:30 p.m
By: Sven Trautwein
Despite crises, the global book market is showing resilience.
An annual report reveals surprising sales increases in many countries.
The book market is proving its resilience to crises in many countries.
This is the conclusion of the first joint global annual report from
GfK Entertainment
and
Nielsen BookData
.
Despite price increases in many countries, increasing sales were often achieved in 2023.
This trend was evident in 12 of the 16 countries examined, but Germany was not included in this analysis.
Global book market 2023
Global book market 2023: Number of books sold worldwide excluding Germany.
© GfK Entertainment/Nielsen Book Data
The study also reveals rare information on the number of print books sold in individual countries.
The high number is particularly notable in France with its around 68 million inhabitants.
According to the report, 324.5 million books were sold there, while in Great Britain, which has a population of almost the same size, 198.6 million books changed hands.
In Italy, with a population of around 59 million, 105.3 million books changed hands, while in Spain, with a population of around 48 million, 74.5 million books were sold.
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France (with a sales increase of 1.5 percent), Great Britain (with a sales increase of 1.2 percent), Italy (with a sales increase of 3.4 percent) and Spain (with a sales increase of 4.6 percent) were able to do so despite lower Sales figures make profits compared to the previous year due to higher prices, as the annual report from
GfK
and
Nielsen
shows.
The book markets in India and Mexico even recorded growth rates of 7.1 and 11.4 percent, respectively.
Four of the 16 countries examined, including Australia (with a decline in sales of 2.1 percent) and New Zealand (with a decline in sales of 5.4 percent), suffered a decline in sales in the period from January to December 2023.
Book purchases in Germany?
The land of poets and thinkers was not taken into account, despite around 70,000 new publications every year.
The study does not show data for Germany.
When asked by GfK, a responsible employee said that no information was available for Germany.
An email with a question to the German Book Trade Association remained unanswered until the article was published (as of March 7, 3:30 p.m.).
As soon as the numbers are available, we will update them.
Some information is available for Germany for 2022.
Social media: The new impetus for book purchases among young people
In 2022, the number of book buyers continued to decline, as in previous years, as the industry magazine
buchmarkt
reports with regard to GfK figures.
Around 25.8 million people purchased books, which is a decrease of around 1.4 million compared to the previous year.
The number of buyers also fell among 16 to 29 year olds.
Nevertheless, book spending and purchasing intensity continued to rise in this age group.
On average, 16 to 29 year olds bought around 11.7 books per person in 2022, an increase of around 24 percent compared to 2017.
Spending by this age group increased by around 8 percent between 2017 and 2022.
There is always criticism of the high prices for hardcovers.
Where do young people get their inspiration to buy books?
Social media is becoming increasingly important as a source of inspiration: among 16 to 19 year olds, around one in four euros spent on books is influenced by social media (around 28 percent of spending).
Social media also has a significant influence on 20 to 29 year olds.
For example, these three BookTok books are being made into films.