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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.
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.
Country | Annual Books Read 🔽 |
---|---|
France | 17.00 |
Canada | 17.00 |
United States | 12.00 |
South Korea | 11.00 |
Spain | 9.90 |
Portugal | 8.50 |
Estonia | 6.00 |
Chile | 5.30 |
Peru | 3.30 |
Brazil | 2.50 |
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.
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.
Country | Annual Books Read | Weekly Reading Hours | Yearly Reading Hours |
---|---|---|---|
France | 17.00 | 6.90 | 358.80 |
Canada | 17.00 | 5.80 | 301.60 |
United States | 12.00 | 5.60 | 291.20 |
South Korea | 11.00 | 0 | 0 |
Spain | 9.90 | 5.80 | 301.60 |
Portugal | 8.50 | 0 | 0 |
Estonia | 6.00 | 0 | 0 |
Chile | 5.30 | 0 | 0 |
Peru | 3.30 | 0 | 0 |
Brazil | 2.50 | 5.20 | 270.40 |
Venezuela | 2.00 | 6.40 | 332.80 |
Colombia | 1.90 | 0 | 0 |
Mexico | 1.70 | 5.50 | 286.00 |
Argentina | 1.60 | 5.90 | 306.80 |
India | 0 | 10.70 | 556.40 |
China | 0 | 8.00 | 416.00 |
Indonesia | 0 | 6.00 | 312.00 |
Japan | 0 | 4.10 | 213.20 |
Philippines | 0 | 7.60 | 395.20 |
Egypt | 0 | 7.50 | 390.00 |
Turkey | 0 | 5.90 | 306.80 |
Germany | 0 | 5.70 | 296.40 |
Thailand | 0 | 9.40 | 488.80 |
United Kingdom | 0 | 5.30 | 275.60 |
South Africa | 0 | 6.30 | 327.60 |
Italy | 0 | 5.60 | 291.20 |
Poland | 0 | 6.50 | 338.00 |
Saudi Arabia | 0 | 6.80 | 353.60 |
Australia | 0 | 6.30 | 327.60 |
Taiwan | 0 | 5.00 | 260.00 |
Sweden | 0 | 7.10 | 369.20 |
Czech Republic | 0 | 7.40 | 384.80 |
Hungary | 0 | 6.80 | 353.60 |
Hong Kong | 0 | 6.70 | 348.40 |
Citizens in India read the most and, on average, read for 10 hours and 42 minutes each week.