Arts · Facts & sources
4 sourced facts about books, reading habits and the publishing industry, each with the context behind the number. 4 more are in today's round and appear here after it closes.
Answerabout 30%
E-book reading roughly doubled in a decade, though it's still far from universal among book readers.
Source: Wikipedia: E-book (2021) en.wikipedia.org
Answer$1.2 billion
Audiobooks became one of publishing's fastest-growing formats in the late 2010s, boosted by smartphone listening apps.
Source: Audio Publishers Association, via Wikipedia: Audiobook (2019) en.wikipedia.org
Answer146,575
Brazil's publishing output split roughly evenly between trade titles and educational titles that year.
Source: WIPO Global Publishing Industry report, via Wikipedia: Publishing (2022) en.wikipedia.org
Answerabout 670 million
China's massive smartphone-reading market dwarfs digital reading numbers in most other countries.
Source: Chinese government report, via Wikipedia: E-book (2024) en.wikipedia.org