The results from the Canadian Book Consumer survey are here, along with new data about Canadian book consumers — how did Canadians get books in 2023?
The full Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023 will be released later this spring, but in this three-part blog series we’re giving you a preview of the biggest trends.
Active since 2012, the Canadian Book Consumer survey is our annual survey of Canadians and Canadian book consumers. In it, we survey Canadians quarterly about their book buying, borrowing, and other book-related behaviours. In 2023, we surveyed a total of 4,270 Canadians — 48% of whom bought new books.
If you’re interested in the numbers behind the graphs below, you can find our source data here.
Let’s forge ahead to see what we learned about Canadian book buyers in 2023.
Canadian book buyers visited bookstores online and in-person more than ever before in 2023
During a given month in 2023, 79% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore online, up from 73% in 2022. Another 70% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore in-person, up from 64% in 2022. The graph below shows the frequency of online and in-person bookstore visits by Canadian book buyers in 2023. Most Canadian book buyers visited bookstores of either type between one and four times in a given month — 61% of online book buyers and 63% of in-person book buyers.
Similar to last year, here are the top reasons book buyers in 2023 visited bookstores in-person:
To browse books to pass time — 31%
To browse (for) book deals/sales — 29%
To browse displays and shelves for books to buy — 28%
To browse new releases — 25%
To buy a gift — 18%
For book buyers visiting bookstores online in 2023, the top reasons were:
To browse (for) book deals/sales — 28%
To browse new releases — 23%
To check/compare prices — 23%
To browse books to pass time — 21%
To buy or order specific book(s)/material(s) — 20%
These visits translated into book sales. In 2023, 55% of all book purchases made by these Canadian book buyers were online, while 45% were in-person. Shown in the graph below, these numbers are approaching the pre-pandemic 50-50 split of online and in-person purchases.
As in past years, books purchased online were first encountered through searching for a particular book (42%), while books bought in-person were first seen on a main shelf (54%).
Canadian book buyers purchased at a specific location in 2023 for these top reasons:
Convenient place to shop — 31%
Book(s) in stock/available immediately — 31%
Good price/offer/promo — 29%
Good selection of books — 23%
Easy checkout process to buy books — 21%
While 38% of Canadian book buyers had planned to buy a particular book at a specific time, most book purchases in 2023 were spontaneous to some degree:
26% had planned to buy a particular book, but not necessarily at that specific time;
18% were not planning to buy a book at that specific time, it was an impulse purchase; and
16% were planning to buy a book at that specific time, but had not planned to buy a particular book.
Book buyers are buying more paperbacks
Canadian book buyers in 2023 purchased books in a variety of formats. Similar to past years, the majority of purchases were for print books — 53% paperback and 25% hardcover. In 2023, 14% of books purchases by book buyers were ebooks and 4% were audiobooks. The graph below shows this format breakdown over time, quarter-by-quarter. Paperback purchases are up year over year, while ebook purchases are down.
When asked about their format preferences, most of these Canadian book buyers preferred print books (74%), while others preferred ebooks (17%) or audiobooks (6%).
If their preferred book format isn’t available, will Canadian book buyers purchase the book in another format? Just over a quarter of Canadian book buyers will (27%), about a third will sometimes (32%), and a quarter will not (26%). The rest of Canadian book buyers were unsure (14%). 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, shown in the graph below.
Like in past years, Canadian book buyers in 2023 were most likely to spend $1 to $49 on books in a given month (59%), while others spent $50 to $99 (21%) or $100 or more (20%). We’ll delve more deeply into how book prices have impacted Canadian book consumers in the third instalment of this blog series — stay tuned!
Most of the books purchased were Adult tiles (74%), with some Young Adult (17%) and Juvenile titles (8%).
The majority of books were Fiction titles (62%). In 2023, the top subject categories purchased by these Canadian book buyers were Fantasy (16%), Suspense or Thriller (15%), and Romance (14%).
The remaining books were Non-Fiction titles (38%). Canadian book buyers in 2023 purchased Biography or Memoir (22%), Comics & Graphic Novels (17%), and True Crime (17%) as the top subject categories.
In 2023, Canadian book buyers continued to search for:
books by Canadian authors/illustrators — 33%;
books about Canada or regions within Canada — 25%; and
books about a group or culture written by people from that group or culture — 23%.
Book buyers are buying books for themselves and other adults
Most Canadian book buyers bought books for themselves in 2023 (85%), but some bought books for someone else either as a gift (13%) or not (2%).
In 2023, Canadian book buyers bought books for a range of other people. Canadian book buyers increasingly bought books for other adults (46%), shown in the graph below. Others bought books for:
A middle grade child aged 8-12 — 21%;
A young adult aged 13-17 — 12%;
A young child aged 4-7 — 10%; and
A young child aged 0-3 — 10%.
Canadian book buyers bought books instead of borrowed them in 2023 because they:
want to be able to reread it whenever they want, as much as they want — 15%;
want it right away — 15%; and
want to own it for their display, collection, or archive — 13%.
In 2023, most Canadian book buyers became aware of the books they purchased by reading other books by the same author/illustrator (21%); from a recommendation or review (20%); or by browsing or searching online or in-person (18%).
The reason that made them decide to purchase a book in 2023 was an interest in the book’s subject (32%); the description of the book (18%); or a recommendation or review (18%).
Only 14% of Canadian book buyers left their own reviews online in 2023.
The most popular social media sites among Canadian book consumers were Facebook (67%), YouTube (66%), and Instagram (48%). Almost half of Canadian book buyers never visit book-specific online social network site/communities (e.g., 49th Shelf, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc.) in 2023 (48%).
Altogether 65% of Canadian book buyers saw marketing campaigns or ads for the types of books they were interested in, in 2023 (17% yes and 47% sometimes).
Book buyers are getting books in other ways
Canadian book buyers also got books in other ways in 2023:
32% borrowed books from the public library
26% bought books secondhand
24% received books as a gift
21% received books for free (including free downloads)
20% borrowed books from someone they know
Still curious about Canadian book consumers?
Keep your eyes on our blog for more insights from the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023 — and sign up for the research newsletter to be the first to know about all our upcoming research!
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