Which EU citizens are the most avid readers and which read the least?

EU residents have a relationship with books on the verge of love and hate: almost half of them cannot read a single complete book in a whole year, and in some countries the average is ten books or more.

Almost half of EU citizens – 47.2% – have not read a single book in twelve months, according to a Eurostat study.

Romanians read the least – less than a third of the country’s residents (29.5%), followed by Cyprus (33.1%) and Italy (35.4%).

The Irish turned out to be the most avid readers in the EU: 26% of them said they had read ten or more books in one year, followed by Finland (22.7%), Sweden (21.5%) and France (19.8%).

In absolute terms, the highest proportion of EU citizens reading books (at least one per year) was recorded in Luxembourg (75.2%), followed by Denmark (72.1%) and Estonia (70.7%).

The younger generation reads more than the old

The study also showed that the younger generation – people aged 16 to 29 – are the most enthusiastic readers, as 60% of them read at least one book a year. On the other hand, the 65+ group showed the lowest rate (47%).

The difference between men and women is even greater: 60.5% of women read books compared to 44.5% of men.

According to a study conducted by the Federation of European Publishers in 2024, revenues from the sale of books in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2022 will amount to about 23.9 billion euros.

This is 23.6% more than in 2021, although “mixed results” were observed in different countries, and the largest turnover occurred in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain. In 2022 alone, about 575,00 new titles were published.