The data on books published displayed on the worldometer s counter is based on statistics published by unesco united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. Interestingly, adults age 60 and over read the most books, with 43% reporting they read more than 15 books per year. The average number of books each person read over the course of a year was 12but that number is inflated by the most avid readers. From them we learn that there were 407,000 books published in 2007 the last year for which final numbers are available, a total that includes 123,000 ondemand, short run, and other unclassified titles. There are vastly different numbers for mass market paperback novels, tradepaperback original novels or trade nonfiction, hardback original trade books, and for nontrade titles in any of a. In the same time, around 69 000 books are published each year in france according to registration of, here. The evolution of e book reading is worth a closer look. Number of books published per year per capita by reddit. Jun 24, 2019 if you take the above authors and their 51 titles, they averaged 12,455 lifetime copies sold for each book published. Looks like iceland is around 3125 per million, if we only count those speaking icelandic at least. As part of delve health, we index a new paper almost every 20 minutes. Uk publishes more books per capita than any other country. This page lists the number of book titles published per country per year from various sources.
Aug 06, 2010 how many books have ever been published in all of modern history. Would you believe how many books are published every year in the. That gives us a ratio of fiction to nonfiction production within the contemporary book. I know that overall, in terms of total new english language books published in north america, the number has ballooned from about 55,000 a year when i started in publishing in the mid90s to 178,000 as of. Name the countries which publish the greatest number of books per year. But the number of 30,000 newly published kindle ebooks in the first four days of a month is telling. Google estimates million books have been published in human history. Sep 09, 2016 more recent data is hard to come by, so the best way of filling in the gap between 20 and now may be to average book production over the last three years 755,755 new titles annually worldwide. Selfpublishing of print books increased by 38 percent in 2017 for a total of 879,587. Many of those perhaps as many as half or even more are. Number of books published per year per capita by country. The uk figure is drawn from sales monitor nielsen book, which recorded the total number of new and revised titles published in the uk as about 184,000 in 20, of which 60,000 were digital. Those are added to the pile of the over 4 million unique titles estimated to have been published since the invention of gutenbergs printing press. The combined total of selfpublished print books and ebooks with.
Jan 21, 2014 its true that those highly educated young adults arent reading that many books today. May 11, 2007 a few months ago an industry friend emailed me and asked if i knew how many new christian books are published each year. The decline of the american book lover the atlantic. According to stephen hawking in his recent book brief answers to the big questions, he states that if you stacked the new books being published next to each other, at the present rate of production you would have to move at ninety miles an hour just to keep up with the end of the line. Each year a huge number of new book titles are written and published. Self published ebooks decreased by percent, continuing a downward trend for the third successive year. Certain groups read more, or less, than the country as a whole.
My 7th and most recent book was published 5 months ago. Bowker reports that over one million 1,052,803 books were published in the u. The average 18to29 year old finishes nine per year, compared to among older american. Of course, theres plenty of variation among demographics. Sometimes books take a little while to work themselves onto the bestseller list. Jul 18, 2004 even if you dont count the titles published through printondemand and other feecharging, vanitypresstype outfits, the total still comes to 10,000 books a year or one book published every. Production of printed books per half century in thousands of books, 14541800 3. Jan 08, 20 there are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the us alone, depending on which stats you believe. The counts include reeditions of older titles, but not selfpublished books. Number of books published per year per capita by books. The following map shows the number of books published per year per capita or per 1 million capita, to be more precise. Orange is reserved for 50100k and light green for 1050k countries. Ivp behind the books how many new christian books are.
But even at the minimum of 50,000 per month, that means at least 1,670 new kindle ebooks are published every day. The rise of the actual number of books is even greater as dittmar 2012 shows. According to unesco, this is an important index of standard of living, education, and of a countrys selfawareness. The average book sells 3000 copies in its lifetime publishers weekly, 2006. New report also shows printondemand experienced a steep decline after years of stunning growth. Oct 03, 2018 a report from statisa reveals that 22% of americans read fewer than five books per year, 20% read up to ten books per year, and 17% read up to fifteen books per year. Apr 06, 2017 the countries with more than 100 thousand books published per year are displayed in red. Production of printed books per half century in thousands of books, 14541800 3 books printed per edition the rise of the actual number of books is even greater as dittmar 2012 shows. Most of the data is from the years 20 and 2012, but some of the figures are older no more than five years.
According to unesco, this is an important index of standard of living, education, and of a. In 1978, gallup found that 42 percent of adults had read 11 books or more in the past year percent said theyd read more than 50. Jan 18, 2017 this study shows the languages which produces the most books. In tiny iceland, which was not included, around 1,000 new titles are published each year in a language spoken by only 320,000 people. Thus i usually say that the average book sells 10,000 copies with a major publisher. There is an annual publication, the library and book trade almanac formerly known as the bowker annual library and book trade almanac put out by information today, inc. News 2019 selfpublishing grew 40 percent in 2018, new report. Below is shown the number of new titles per year, per country, as of the latest year available. More than one million books published every year in the united states. According to the research, americans read a mean average of 12 books per year, and the typical median american has read four books in the past 12. How many books did the average american read in the last year.
Bowker, a proquest affiliate, is the official isbn agency for the united states. Number of childrens books published tools, publications. Number of books published per year per capita by country in. According to unesco, this is an important index of standard of. Heres how it breaks down by country note that the u. Can you tell me the number of childrens books that were published last year. Pollsters report more than 80 percent of americans would like to be an author, and in 2011 statisticians counted 329,259 books published in the united states, and 2. As the numbers confirm, selfpublishing continues to grow each year. The reported output of us publishers differs wildly. There are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the us alone, depending on which stats you believe. Nov 18, 2019 this statistic provides information on the number of selfpublished books in the united states from 2008 to 2018, broken down by format. The selfhelp industry helps itself to billions of dollars. In descending order of number of new titles per year, as. According to table 1 american book production, 20042009, on pages 484485, the preliminary 2009 number of childrens book titles published is 21,878 and the preliminary 2009 number of young adult book titles published is 4,644.
Jun 24, 2016 published when he was just 25 and fresh off of world war ii service himself, norman mailers war classic the naked and the dead was the bestselling book in the country every week for over a year. The most popular book the year you were born bestselling books. The amount of no books makes for grim reading or lack of it. The number of nonreaders in the us has nearly tripled since 1978. Apr 19, 2018 according to the research, americans read a mean average of 12 books per year, and the typical median american has read four books in the past 12 months. In addition to high revenues, selfhelp also has a high recidivism rate, with the most likely purchaser of a selfhelp book being the same person who purchased one already in the last 18 months. The latest available numbers total to approximately 2. The average traditionally published book which sells 3,000 in its entire lifetime in print only sells about 250300 copies its first year. The countries with more than 100 thousand books published per year are displayed in red. The counts include reeditions of older titles, but not self published books.
If we keep the same percentage, for 250 000 books published each year, between 1 800 and 3 600 are books. Sep 17, 2015 the average traditionally published book which sells 3,000 in its entire lifetime in print only sells about 250300 copies its first year. There is one new book on amazon every five minutes. You scored % this beats or equals % of test takers also.
And the number of traditionally published books had climbed to over 300,000 by 20 according to the latest bowker figures august 5, 2014. New providence, nj august 5, 2014 production of print books by traditional publishers slowed in the united states in 20, declining from 309,957 titles in 2012 to a projected 304,912 titles in 20, according to bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information. And we have to remember that the actual number of sales might be 20,000, and then maybe 30,000 people have read the book since plenty of people use libraries, pirate, or borrow books from friends. But if all their books only sold 10,000 copies, they might struggle financially. Even if you dont count the titles published through printondemand and other feecharging, vanitypresstype outfits, the total still comes to 10,000 books a year or one book published every. Books suspiciously absent from the list of the year they were published sometimes show up in the next year, likely due to paperback releases andor word of mouth or they may have simply been published too late in the year to compete with the spring books. This is the fifth consecutive year of print growth driven by a 50 percent increase at createspace, a selfpublishing platform. The statistics show that the chinese read an average of 4. Economically significant rules are regulations issued by executive branch agencies that meet this definition in executive order 12866. More about reading countries most statista survey world literacy. Total book sales for all seven books total over 418,000 this is only my ebooks sales, does not include my audio sales or paperback. Sep 29, 2010 from them we learn that there were 407,000 books published in 2007 the last year for which final numbers are available, a total that includes 123,000 ondemand, short run, and other unclassified titles. Today, pew finds that just 28 percent hit the 11 mark.
The ten awful truths and the ten wonderful truths about. The world book publishing map was created by the team from a book discovery platform bookstr. This study shows the languages which produces the most books. Live statistics showing how many books have been published this year in the world.
Published when he was just 25 and fresh off of world war ii service himself, norman mailers war classic the naked and the dead was the bestselling book in the country every week for over a year. That gives us a ratio of fiction to nonfiction production within the contemporary book market. The most frequently reported number was 4 books per year. Thanks to that, its available in an easier to share form.
United states 2010 328,259 new titles and editions. Here are the biggest fiction bestsellers of the last 100. Once again, reading rates are strongly correlated with education levels. According to the index, india read the most, followed by thailand and china. Without the outlier years, that dips slightly to 10. Everything you wanted to know about book sales but were. How many books are published each year in various languages. The 10 awful truths about book publishing berrettkoehler. Number of books printed per edition, 14501600 dittmar 2012 4. Its not an official number, but it could make a good start point. Manuscript production in absolute numbers per century, 6th to 15th century.
Nougat noticed that the number rose by 12 books in an hour, which suggests that one new book is added every five minutes. If we keep the same percentage, for 250 000 books published each year, between 1 800 and 3 600 are books from new authors. Number of academy award nominations that the color purple 1985, the. The positive news is that the rate of young people reading for pleasure stopped declining. A few months ago an industry friend emailed me and asked if i knew how many new christian books are published each year. Way too many books are being published intellectual takeout. Over the years, the book industry has remained a massive, greatly influential global consumer market. There are now well over 6 million amazon kindle ebooks. This statistic provides information on the number of self published books in the united states from 2008 to 2018, broken down by format. Of the books released in 2015 by the 25 biggest book markets, china published 28% of the total, and the us 20%.
Oct 22, 2014 the uk figure is drawn from sales monitor nielsen book, which recorded the total number of new and revised titles published in the uk as about 184,000 in 20, of which 60,000 were digital. This chart shows number of books published per country per year. When johannes gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, he couldnt have foreseen how his humble creation would eventually lead to a global industry churning out millions of books each year. Read guy kawasakis new book ape to learn about the pitfalls of selfpublishing. I published my first of seven books less than three years ago. The net effect is that the number of new books published each year in the u. The amount of scientific data and publications is growing at an enormous rate and keeping up with it is difficult. Aug 18, 2017 of the books released in 2015 by the 25 biggest book markets, china published 28% of the total, and the us 20%.
In asia, 79% of the japanese had read a print book in the last year. Number of copies adventures of huckleberry finn has sold worldwide. This statistic provides information on the number of selfpublished books in the united states from 2008 to 2018, broken down by format. This graph presents the number of economically significant final rules published each presidential year. On average, about 11% of books published in a given year were fiction. Eurostat also measured the amount of books that some countries have read in the past year in 2011. The ultimate guide to global reading habits infographic.
Bowkers annual study, selfpublishing in the united states, 202018. The number of books published in china 440 thousand in 20 is twice as big as in the uk. The biggest number of books is published per year in china, united states, and the united kingdom. The book was first published in the us in february 1885, and by the following month, the town library in concord, massachusetts, became the first to ban the novel for being trash of the veriest sort. Different language versions of the same title published in a particular country should. May 12, 2017 the average number of books read for pleasure by adults in the united kingdom is approximately 10 each year, which is much higher than the figure for the chinese. Calculating the odds of getting a traditional publisher.
Selfpublished ebooks decreased by percent, continuing a downward trend for the third successive year. The average sales per title are utterly without meaning. This is how many books the average american reads in a year. The average digital only authorpublished book sells 250 copies in its lifetime. Every year, dozens of new books sell 100k copies on bookscan, and a couple sell a million.