The book sector in Europe

After the economic crisis of 2008, Europe's book market experienced several years of decreasing sales and revenues.  However, 2015 saw growth in Europe's book market and it is hoped this trend will continue.

The size of the sector

• Book publishing generates a turnover of € 22-24 billion per year in the European Union and European Economic Area alone
• The total market value is estimated at € 36-40 billion
• Most the world’s top publishing groups are European-owned
• The world’s major bookfairs (Frankfurt, London, Bologna) take place in Europe.
• Publishing houses directly employ 150,000 people in the EU
• 575,000 new titles were published in 2015
• The e-book market is estimated to account for 6-7% of the total, although thre are significant differences between countries
• Approximately 20% of turnover comes from exports

Four broad categories of publishing

• Educational (schools/ ELT)
• Academic/ professional (HE/ STM etc)
• Trade/consumer (fiction and non-fiction)
• Children/young adults

The (happy) customer

• The 2016 EC Consumer Markets Scoreboard gathered citizen assessments of how 42 consumer markets perform. With a score of over 85 out of 100, the book, magazine and newspaper sector was the top performer.
• Citizens of Austria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden were most likely to have read a book in the last 12 months.

PDF of the Report is available here.