What are the countries that produce the most books in the world?
Book publishing of today has gone a long way from its first traces in stone tablets. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar global industry – in various languages, niches, purposes, and formats. The advancement in technology has created an entirely new dimension in the publishing industry – a more easily accessible one – that propelled the industry even further financially.
To come up with this list of the countries that produce the most books in the world was a little difficult, especially when accuracy is concerned. The statistics are rather limited and not entirely inclusive or are not made available for public access.
For this list, we have used the data from the International Publishers Association (IPA) and those made available by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These statistics do not specifically define whether they are published paper books, e-books, or audio books. The numbers also don’t specify whether these are new titles or new editions of old titles. These figures also only cover the number of published books from the year 2013.
Itching to read about the list of countries that produce the most books in the world? Read on to know them! Bookworms and classic literature lovers should not miss our other article on the seven easiest Dickens novels to read first!
8. Spain
Published books: 76,434
The economic problems that the Spanish book industry had experienced in the past have surely taken its toll on the sales figures. The numbers presented here were taken in 2013, during the first couple of years past the height of the economic turmoil. They are seen as a testament to the resiliency of the industry.
7. Japan
Published books: 82,589
Japan’s book industry (and publication industry in general) is suffering an alarming downgrade. Since the mid 90’s, the sales for books as well as for magazines have been plummeting and is yet to make a comeback. Despite that, the production is still among the highest, bagging Japan the seventh spot on our list of the 8 countries that produce the most books in the world.
6. India
Published books: 90,000
While the publishing markets of the West are suffering from freefalling sales, India’s, on the contrary, is showing great prospects and is in fact booming. India is the sixth largest publishing market in the world and ranks second in English language books market – second only to the US. In 2014, India and its 16,000-strong publishers enjoyed a compound annual growth of 30%.
5. Germany
Published books: 93,600
The performance of the German book industry is seen as lackluster, despite the significant growth in e-book sales in 2015, as the publishing industry suffered more financial losses than gains. Like Spain, Germany is hit by the financial problems that affected the Euro publishing markets.
4. Russia
Published books: 101,981
Despite the country being one of the pillars of Western Literature,present-day Russians are not as voracious a reader as they used to be, thus hurting the publishing industry significantly. Many bookshop closures were seen in Moscow in 2015. This meant publishing houses publish less and less, and that the book unit prices are expected to rise to make ends meet. Despite the financial woes and the decrease in production, Russia remains among the top 8 countries that produce the most books in the world.
3. United Kingdom:
Published books: 184,000
In the home base of beloved author JK Rowling, book publishing is gaining a steadily increasing interest in digitally published books. Digital prints now account for 17% of all book sales in the UK – Europe’s second largest publishing industry. Despite the economic woes that the West is suffering from, some UK publishers remain hopeful about the future of the industry.
2. United States
Published books: 304,912
The largest book publishing industry in the world is enjoying small gains. Their 2013 sales were overtaken by the 2014 income, allowing this market to thrive despite the gripping losses that haunt many other publishing industries in the West.
1. China
Published books: 444,000
China is only the second largest publishing industry in the world, second to the United States but their book production is larger than any other. Like India, the Chinese book market is not showing any signs of slowing down but is even enjoying gains in profit. It reported an over 10% annual growth in 2015 alone. All their efforts at production not only landed them the top ranks for this list of the 8 countries that produce the most books in the world; it is also the country that is thriving the most.
