Each year, BookNet Canada surveys Canadian book buyers and asks them about their buying, borrowing, and other book-related behaviours. In 2025, we surveyed 1,979 Canadians, 49% of whom were considered book buyers.
Through this three-part blog series, we’ll share data about book buyers, book borrowers, and lastly, data about consumer spending and perceptions of value. So let’s get right to it and see what book buyers were up to in 2025.
Most Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore between one and four times a month
During a given month in 2025, 77% of book buyers visited a bookstore, either online or in person, this is up from 75% in 2024, and up quite dramatically from 63% in 2020. If we break this out by type of bookstore we find that 80% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore online and 73% visited a bookstore in-person, up from 71% in 2024.
The graph below shows the frequency of online and in-person bookstore visits by Canadian book buyers in 2025. Most Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore between one and four times in a given month — 60% of online book buyers and 64% of in-person book buyers.
Book buyers were asked to select all their reasons for visiting a bookstore in-person in 2025. Here are the top five answers:
To browse displays and shelves for books to buy — 30%. This is up from 25% in 2024 and has moved into the top spot.
To browse books to pass time — 28%. Down from 30% in 2024.
To browse new releases — 28%. Up from 25% in 2024.
To browse for book deals/sales — 25%. Same as in 2024.
To buy a gift — 20%. Up from 17% in 2024.
For book buyers visiting bookstores online in 2025, the top reasons were:
To browse for book deals/sales — 29%. Up from 18% in 2024.
To browse new releases — 23%. Up from 16% in 2024.
To check/compare prices — 23%. Up from 16% in 2024.
To browse books to pass time — 19%. Up from 15% in 2024.
To look for a specific book to buy it in a specific format — 18%. Up from 12% in 2024.
Over half of book purchases were at least somewhat spontaneous
These visits translated into book sales. In 2025, 53% of all book purchases made by these Canadian book buyers were online, while 47% were in-person. Shown in the graph below, if we break these numbers out by quarter, we can see that we have come back to the pre-pandemic 50-50 split of online and in-person purchases.
Canadian book buyers purchased their books at a specific location in 2025 for these top reasons:
Convenient place to shop — 35%. Down from 39% in 2024.
Good price/offer/promo — 29%. Up from 28% in 2024.
Book(s) in stock/available immediately — 28%. Up from 29% in 2024.
Good selection of books — 25%. Up from 24% in 2024.
As in past years, the consumers who bought their books online first found them by searching for a particular book (40%). And while those who bought their books in-person first saw them on a main shelf (57%), this has increased from 53% in 2024.
While 40% of Canadian book buyers had planned to buy a particular book at a specific time, most book purchases in 2025 were at least in some part spontaneous:
26% had planned to buy a particular book, but not necessarily at that specific time
17% were not planning to buy a book at that specific time, it was an impulse purchase
17% were planning to buy a book at that specific time, but had not planned to buy a particular book
This breakdown reflects a similar distribution in terms of impulse and planned purchases in 2025 as in 2024.
Most book purchases in 2025 were print books
Canadian book buyers in 2024 purchased books in a variety of formats. Similar to past years, the majority of purchases were for print books (76%) — 48% paperback and 28% hardcover. In 2025, 14% of books purchased by book buyers were ebooks and 7% were audiobooks. The graph below shows this format breakdown over time, quarter-by-quarter.
When asked about their format preferences, most Canadian book buyers preferred print books (71%), while others preferred ebooks (15%) or audiobooks (9%). But if their preferred book format wasn’t available, over a quarter said they would choose to get the book in another format (28%), a third said sometimes (33%), and a quarter said no (24%). The rest of Canadian book buyers were unsure (15%). Breaking these responses down by format preference, Canadian book buyers who prefer ebooks or audiobooks are most likely to purchase a book in another format if their preferred format is not available (46% for audiobook listeners and 42% for ebook readers), as shown in the graph below. Print readers were the least likely, 30% said they would not get the book in another format.
Like in past years, Canadian book buyers in 2025 were most likely to spend $1 to $49 on books in a given month (51%), while others spent $50 to $99 (23%) or $100 or more (23%). Three quarters of the books purchased were Adult titles (75%), though some were Young Adult (17%) and Juvenile titles (9%).
The majority of books bought in 2025 were Fiction titles (62%). The top Fiction subject categories purchased by Canadian book buyers were Fantasy (17%), Suspense or Thriller (16%), and Mystery/Detective (13%). The remaining books were Non-Fiction titles (38%). Canadian book buyers in 2025 purchased Biography or Memoir (20%), Self-Help (19%), and History (13%) as the top Non Fiction subject categories.
People bought books instead of borrowing because they wanted them right away
Canadian book buyers bought books instead of borrowing them in 2025 for these main reasons
wanted it right away — 14%
wanted to be able to reread it whenever they want, as much as they want — 13%
wanted to own it for their display, collection, or archive — 11%.
In 2025, most Canadian book buyers became aware of the books they purchased from a recommendation or review (22% in 2025, up from 19% in 2024). They also found them by browsing or searching online or in-person (19%) or because they had read other books by the same author/illustrator (18%).
The top reasons buyers decided to purchase a book in 2025 were an interest in the book’s subject (32% in 2025, up from 29% in 2024), the description of the book (20%), a recommendation or review (18%), or they liked the series (17%).
Canadians are buying books for themselves
Most Canadian book buyers bought books for themselves in 2025 (84%, down from 86% in 2024), but some bought books for someone else either as a gift (14%) or just because (2%). In 2025, Canadian book buyers bought books for a range of other people. Canadian book buyers bought books for children and young adults under 18 (55%) and other adults (45%), shown in the graph below. The age breakdown for books bought as gifts for those under 18:
a young adult aged 13 to 17 — 15%
a middle grade child aged 8 to 12 — 18%
a young child aged 4 to 7 — 12%
a young child aged 0 to 3 — 11%
Canadian book buyers also got books in other ways in 2025:
35% borrowed books from the public library
26% bought books secondhand
28% received books as a gift
22% received books for free (including free downloads)
15% borrowed books from someone they know
Canadians are searching for Canadian books online
The most popular social media sites among Canadian book consumers were YouTube (65%), Facebook (64%), and Instagram (45%). Over half of Canadian book buyers visited book-specific online social network sites/communities (e.g., 49th Shelf, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc.) in 2025 (56%). Only 16% of Canadian book buyers left their own reviews online in 2025 which is down from 19% in 2024.
In 2025, Canadian book buyers continued to search for:
books by Canadian authors/illustrators — 38%, up from 32% in 2024;
books about Canada or regions within Canada — 29%, up from 27% in 2024; and
books about a group or culture written by people from that group or culture — 22%, same as in 2024.
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