Young people have bought and received more books in recent years. According to the German Publishers and Booksellers Association in Frankfurt am Main, book lovers aged 13 to 15 (plus 65 percent) and 16 to 19 (plus 77 percent) in particular increased their spending sharply between 2019 and 2023. The basis is the study “Bock auf Buch!” with survey data from the market research institute GfK.
The higher spending is reflected in more books being purchased: While 10- to 15-year-olds bought or received an average of 7.3 books in 2019, the number of books per capita rose to 10.3 by 2022.
In the following year, 2023, the average number of books per capita in the youth group fell to 9.5. In contrast, the number of young book buyers grew between 2022 and 2023, contrary to the general trend: around two million young people between the ages of 10 and 15 bought or received books last year, almost four percent more than in the previous year.
Digital natives are by no means lost to reading
“Digital natives are by no means lost to reading,” concludes the Börsenverein. However, there are clear differences when it comes to reading.
According to the 2022 KIM study cited by the Börsenverein, which examined children between the ages of six and 13, an average of 14 percent of the age group read a book almost every day, 38 percent once or more a week. In contrast, 31 percent read only rarely and 18 percent never.
There is a big difference in reading habits between girls and boys: while 19 percent of girls read almost every day, only nine percent of boys do. And while twelve percent of girls never read, 23 percent of boys are reluctant readers.
