Bookstore Revenue Statistics – WordsRated (2024)

Bookstore sales statistics

Print book sales rose in 2020 by 8.2% in the US. and in 2021, units increased to 750.9 million, from 693.7 million compared to the year before.
In 2020 bookstore sales were $6,185 million due to the impact of the pandemic, but are close to being back to 2019 levels.
According to the US Census Bureau, bookstore sales fell nearly 30% in 2020.
December bookstore sales increased in 2022 by 33.6% increasing to $1.20 billion from $900 million in 2020, following sales jumps of 53% in October and 43% in November.
Based on the Economic Census of 2017 books made up 70.9% total bookstore sales.

In 2021 bookstore revenue sat at $8,017, a 22.9% increase from 2020.
Overall from 2010 to 2021 US bookstores have shown a gradual decrease in revenue from $15,238 million, a loss of 47.4%.
From 2023 to 2027 revenue is expected to show an annual rate of 1.45%.
The market size of bookstores in the US is $9.7bn as of 2023.
This is a -1.3% decrease in market growth and -3.1% in annual market growth from 2018 to 2023.
As of 2023 there are approximately 14,561 bookstores in the US
Currently, the US employs a total of 74,132 workers, the largest companies being Barnes and Noble Inc., Follet Higher Education Group Inc., and Books-A-Million Inc.
US Bookstores saw a revenue decline of 10.8% in 2020 after many stores closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
American Booksellers Association (ABA) reports that as of 2022, they have 2,023 member stores in 2,561 locations, which is up from the 1,689 in 2020.
The association also found that 80% of respondents on a survey said they saw higher sales in 2021 than in 2020, and 70 % said their sales the year prior were higher than 2019.

US Bookstore revenue from 2010 to 2021 is displayed in the charts below:

In 2021 total revenue sales of books and journals in the United Kingdom reached 6.7 billion British pounds.
Digital revenue surpassed £3 billion British pounds for the first time in 2021
Sales revenue for print accounted for £3.5 billion British pounds

The Australian bookstore market is at $1.4 billion as of 2023.
This is a -1.6% decrease in market size growth and a -4.1% in annual market size from 2018 to 2023.
In 2020 sales of books in Australia grew 7.8% to $1.25 billion, unit sales for the same year were 67 million.
In 2021, the Australian book market experienced more growth of 2.5% in value to $1.3 billion, according to Nielsen BookScan.

The Canadian bookstore market is at $1.7 billion as of 2023.
This is a -3% decrease in market size growth and a -7.4% in annual market size from 2018 to 2023.
In 2021 a total of 52.83 million books were sold in Canada, generating a revenue of over $1.1 billion dollars.
Although book sales revenue dropped between 2019 and 2020, it had been increasing slowly during the five years prior and surpassed one billion dollars for the first time in 2017.
According to BookNet Canada, book sales revenue increased by 65% between 2017 and 2018.

The Indian book market is currently worth $3.21 billion making it the sixth largest in the world and the second largest English language book market.
In 2023 revenue is expected to reach $3.86 billion.
This is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 2.21%, resulting in $4.21 billion by 2027.