Eurostat recently reported figures indicating that last year, 9.5% of European Union residents who used the internet in the preceding three months purchased e-books or audiobooks. This represents an increase of 2.2% compared to 2024 data. Within Bulgaria, the share of residents making such purchases was 5.77%, marking a rise of 3.64% from the previous year.
Analysis across member states revealed significant variation in consumption habits. Ireland reported the highest percentage of the population buying digital books and audio formats at 24.5%, followed by Denmark at 22.5% and Croatia at 21.0%. Conversely, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and Latvia reported the lowest shares, all falling below 5%.
Croatia demonstrated the most substantial growth in this sector, showing an increase of 16 percentage points compared with 2024 figures. Other countries experiencing notable growth included Greece (+7.2 pp), Germany (+3.7 pp), and Cyprus (+4.0 pp). However, the data also highlighted areas of decline, with Finland registering a decrease of 4.8 pp, Portugal declining by 1.6 pp, and Malta reporting a marginal decrease of 0.1 pp.
These statistics provide an overview of the evolving market for digital reading materials across the EU.
Topics: #books #audio #reported
Digital reading formats are definitely showing continued growth across the region.