Average Books Read Per Year by Country 2024

Most reports about average books read per year by country indicate time spent reading. India, Thailand, China, the Philippines and Egypt rank in the top five. This may include electronic media.

Time Spent Reading (2017-2022 Reports)

Keep in mind the new reports haven’t come out yet. This data comes from 2017, and many sources still report this same data as late as 2022.

1. India – Ranking at number one, India spends approximately 10 hours and 42 minutes reading per week. This equals 556.4 per year.
2. Thailand – It ranks number two, and the weekly reading rate totals 9 hours and 24 minutes. This is calculated at about 488.8 per year.
3. China – This country comes in at third, reading 8 hours a week or 416 per year.
4. Philippines – People from this land read 7 hours and 36 minutes of material per week. This equals 395.2 per year.
5. Egypt – Coming in at five, this nation reads for 7 hours and 30 minutes per week or 390 minutes per year.

Countries that Reads (And Buys) The Most Books

Most of the data about countries that read the most books comes from 2017, but some of it may have come from as early as 2011. New reports after 2020 have not published yet.

1. United States – Apparently, the U.S. reads about 275,232 per year. They make up 30% of the market share of book buyers.
2. China – The country reads 208,418 books on average per year, and this totals about 10% of all books bought.
3. United Kingdom – This nation reads about 188,000 every year. Record sales for books in this country reached at least 212 million.
4. Japan – The country reads an average of 139,078 books per year. This makes up about 7% of the total market share.
5. Germany – The 2017 reports didn’t specify how many books this country reads. However, it did indicate that this country purchased about 9% of the world’s market share. Books Per Person (2016-2022)

A 2016 Pew Research report indicates that the U.S. reads as high as 12 books per year with 50% of the nation reading four or fewer of them. By this time, Americans still read more paper books than e-books or audio books just like they did in 2012. However, the electronic media trend has grown.

The other half of Americans surveyed in 2016 read as many as seven books per year. This number is more likely if a person is in school and has reading assigned to them, especially in college.

More people have embraced electronic versus print media, however, especially after 2020. Nevertheless, a 2022 update of this data indicates that only 9% of people had read only digital media 12 months prior to this study. After deducting the 23% that don’t read books at all, it’s divided almost equally between reading a mixture of print and media and just print books. The Most-Read Books

Check out the most-read books of all time. This list includes the Holy Bible as number one, and the Holy Quran comes in at number two. The Harry Potter Series, collections of quotes from The Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung (former Communist China Party leader), and Lord of the Rings.