Average Books Read Per Year by Country 2024

Most reports about the average amount of reading per year, per person, by country indicate time spent reading. The United States, India, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy rank in the top five. This may include electronic media.

Time Spent Reading (2024 Report)

1. United States – The most prolific readers in the world, Americans spend almost 7 hours reading per week, on average. This equals 357 hours per year.
2. India – Ranking second, Indians’ weekly reading rate is just under 7 hours per week, only about 5 minutes per week behind that of Americans. The annual reading hours amount to 352 per year.

3. United Kingdom – This country comes in third, reading about 6.5 hours a week or 343 hours per year.
4. France – People in this land read for about 5 hours and 50 minutes each week. This equals 305 hours per year.
5. Italy – The fifth most voracious readers globally, Italians read for 5 hours and 20 minutes per week or 278 hours per year.

Countries that Read (And Buy) The Most Books in 2024

1. United States – The average American reads about 17 books per year.
2. India – The country reads 16 books on average, per person, per year.

3. United Kingdom – This nation reads about 15 books per person every year. Record sales for books in this country have reached at least 212 million.
4. France – The country reads an average of 14 books per year, per person.
5. Italy – Italians read 13 books per person yearly.

Americans read more printed books than e-books or audio books, though their consumption of electronic media has grown. This number of books Americans read increases, often significantly, if a person is in school and has reading assigned to them, especially in college.

More people around the world have embraced electronic versus print media, 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 the 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

The list of the most-read books of all time includes the Holy Bible as number one and the Holy Quran 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 are several of the other most read books.