Ebooks are an integral part of the Canadian book market. Nearly 20% of all books purchased by Canadians in 2022 were ebooks, according to the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2022. At the same time, almost 70% of Canadians reported reading an ebook in 2022 in the Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2022..
Our new, free study, Tapping into Ebooks: Ebook Use in Canada 2022 , benchmarks ebook use in Canada, and reveals the buying, borrowing, and reading habits of Canadian ebook consumers. It also tracks the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ebook use, by comparing data from 2022 with past years.
Highlights from the study
36% of Canadian book buyers purchased ebooks in 2022, at an average price of $12.62 per ebook.
Overall, 17% of all book purchases were ebooks in 2022.
27% of Canadian book borrowers borrowed ebooks in 2022, with the number of Canadian ebook checkouts increasing 32% from 2019 to 2022 according to OverDrive.
16% of all Canadian readers preferred ebooks in 2022 and almost half of ebook readers agreed or sometimes agreed that they would not read a book in another format, if an ebook was not available.
Most Canadian ebook readers read ebooks on either a smartphone (34%) or tablet (32%) in 2022.
Canadian ebook readers use a variety of ebook features while reading, including night display (72%), table of contents (72%), and zoom (71%).
Canadian ebook consumers buy, borrow, and read diversely.
The most circulated Canadian books from July 1, 2024, to July 6, 2025.