Number of new book titles published per million people by country

Name: Number of new book titles published per million people
Creator: Jonathan Fink-Jensen, IISH Data Collection (2015) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
License: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)

Number of new book titles published per year, per million inhabitants.

Countries reporting

Highest

5,677 book titles per million people

Iceland

Lowest

6 book titles per million people

Peru

Median

318.15 book titles per million people

Years covered

510

1500–2009

Data points

8,270

What the numbers show

Number of new book titles published per million people is currently reported for 69 countries. The highest value is 5,677 book titles per million people in Iceland; the lowest is 6 book titles per million people in Peru.

The median across all reporting countries is 318.15 book titles per million people, and the mean is 723.17 book titles per million people.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 946.

Over the past decade 31 countries rose and 34 fell. The largest increase was in Cyprus (up 893.9%), and the largest decrease in USSR (down 58.1%).

Number of new book titles published per million people: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Iceland	5,677 book titles per million people	1996	up 12.8%	rising
2	Norway	3,277 book titles per million people	2009	down 24.7%	volatile
3	Netherlands	2,629 book titles per million people	2009	down 15.8%	volatile
4	Finland	2,559 book titles per million people	1996	up 44.8%	volatile
5	Sweden	2,504 book titles per million people	2009	down 5.8%	volatile
6	Denmark	2,405 book titles per million people	2009	down 22.6%	volatile
7	United Kingdom	2,115 book titles per million people	2009	up 40.4%	volatile
8	Estonia	1,841 book titles per million people	1996	up 32.1%	rising
9	Slovenia	1,714 book titles per million people	1996	up 84.4%	rising
10	Switzerland	1,460 book titles per million people	2009	down 10.6%	volatile
11	Belgium	1,322 book titles per million people	2004	up 22.3%	volatile
12	Cyprus	1,259 book titles per million people	1996	up 893.9%	volatile
13	Spain	1,164 book titles per million people	1996	up 17.3%	volatile
14	Malta	1,072 book titles per million people	1995	up 4.2%	volatile
15	New Zealand	1,047 book titles per million people	1984	up 100.3%	rising
16	Lithuania	993.64 book titles per million people	1996	up 25.7%	rising
17	Austria	985.47 book titles per million people	1996	down 17.2%	rising
18	Russia	898.49 book titles per million people	2009	up 176.5%	volatile
19	Hungary	894.82 book titles per million people	1996	down 3.5%	rising
20	Germany	873.3 book titles per million people	1996	down 3.3%	volatile
21	France	818.98 book titles per million people	1996	up 41.1%	volatile
22	Latvia	798.69 book titles per million people	1996	down 0.5%	rising
23	Portugal	779.02 book titles per million people	1996	down 28.4%	rising
24	Ireland	756.78 book titles per million people	1985	up 261.6%	volatile
25	South Korea	670.52 book titles per million people	1996	down 33.5%	volatile
26	Canada	662.76 book titles per million people	1996	—	volatile
27	Italy	614.22 book titles per million people	1996	up 113.8%	volatile
28	Australia	609.36 book titles per million people	1994	up 183.9%	volatile
29	Bulgaria	593.06 book titles per million people	1996	up 7.9%	rising
30	Israel	479.01 book titles per million people	1992	down 2.3%	falling
31	Japan	447.46 book titles per million people	1996	up 21.7%	volatile
32	Greece	403.17 book titles per million people	1996	down 14.0%	volatile
33	Croatia	384.85 book titles per million people	1996	down 28.1%	falling
34	Poland	365.11 book titles per million people	1996	up 38.6%	volatile
35	Romania	318.15 book titles per million people	1996	up 35.8%	falling
36	Georgia	305.74 book titles per million people	1990	down 26.6%	rising
37	Moldova	291.95 book titles per million people	1990	down 22.1%	rising
38	Malaysia	291.38 book titles per million people	1996	up 36.7%	volatile
39	Belarus	276.75 book titles per million people	1990	down 11.3%	rising
40	Argentina	276.04 book titles per million people	1996	up 78.4%	rising
41	United States	252.81 book titles per million people	1996	up 20.4%	volatile
42	Armenia	241.95 book titles per million people	1990	down 35.3%	falling
43	Kyrgyzstan	208.78 book titles per million people	1990	down 30.5%	rising
44	Turkmenistan	207.46 book titles per million people	1990	down 11.4%	rising
45	Saudi Arabia	189.08 book titles per million people	1996	—	volatile
46	Chile	173.79 book titles per million people	1995	up 28.0%	falling
47	Tajikistan	149.27 book titles per million people	1990	down 0.5%	rising
48	Thailand	136.7 book titles per million people	1996	down 7.8%	volatile
49	Ukraine	136.49 book titles per million people	1990	down 24.6%	flat
50	United Arab Emirates	134.15 book titles per million people	1993	up 93.1%	volatile
51	South Africa	128.3 book titles per million people	1995	up 5.2%	rising
52	USSR	124.69 book titles per million people	1996	down 58.1%	rising
53	Kazakhstan	122.5 book titles per million people	1990	down 16.2%	rising
54	Jordan	117.11 book titles per million people	1996	down 35.9%	rising
55	Brazil	113.69 book titles per million people	1996	down 26.3%	rising
56	Azerbaijan	110.57 book titles per million people	1990	down 44.3%	falling
57	Turkey	103.88 book titles per million people	1996	down 20.8%	volatile
58	Uzbekistan	101.31 book titles per million people	1990	down 25.3%	falling
59	Tunisia	79.04 book titles per million people	1996	up 7.8%	volatile
60	Mexico	65.5 book titles per million people	1996	up 4.9%	volatile
61	Morocco	32.73 book titles per million people	1996	—	volatile
62	Egypt	29.63 book titles per million people	1996	up 7.9%	falling
63	Algeria	23.42 book titles per million people	1996	down 28.2%	rising
64	Indonesia	20.4 book titles per million people	1996	up 37.4%	volatile
65	Philippines	20.27 book titles per million people	1996	up 49.2%	volatile
66	India	12.73 book titles per million people	1996	down 21.7%	volatile
67	Nigeria	12 book titles per million people	1995	down 54.0%	rising
68	Kenya	11.34 book titles per million people	1994	down 9.2%	volatile
69	Peru	6 book titles per million people	1799	unchanged	falling

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Number of new book titles published per million people by country. Statizoid, drawing on Jonathan Fink-Jensen, IISH Data Collection (2015) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/new-books-per-million/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/new-books-per-million/">Number of new book titles published per million people by country</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator: Number of new book titles published per million people
Unit: book titles per million people
Source: Jonathan Fink-Jensen, IISH Data Collection (2015) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 69 places, 8,270 data points, 1500–2009
Last refreshed: 18 September 2026

Number of new book titles published per year, per million inhabitants.