We’re back with more data from the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2024!
Last time, we discovered the book buying habits of Canadians in 2024. Today, we’re taking a look at another important group: Canadian book borrowers.
The Canadian Book Consumer survey has been active since 2012, and is our annual survey of Canadians and Canadian book consumers. In it, we survey Canadians quarterly about book buying, borrowing, and other book-related behaviours. In 2024, we surveyed a total of 4,212 Canadians — 27% of whom borrowed a book from a public library.
If you’re interested in the numbers behind the graphs below, you can find our source data here.
Here’s what we learned about Canadian book borrowers in 2024.
Canadian library book borrowers visited the library online and in-person more than ever before
Since 2020, the percentage of Canadian book borrowers who visited the library online at least once a month has generally increased from 50% in 2020 to 76% in 2024 (hitting a peak in 2023 at 86%). The percentage of book borrowers who visited the library in-person also increased from 59% in 2020 to 90% in 2024, shown in the graph below.
The graph below shows the frequency of these monthly library visits in 2024. Most Canadian book borrowers visit the library one to four times a month — 46% of book borrowers visited online and 70% visited in-person.
The most popular reasons for Canadian library book borrowers to visit the library in 2024 were:
To pick up hold(s) — 39%
To browse displays and shelves for books to borrow — 28%
To discover a new book, author, and/or illustrator — 20%
To read magazines/newspapers — 13%
To put books/materials on hold — 16%
This differs slightly from 2023, when the top five reasons did not include “To read magazines/newspapers” but instead included “To study/work/research.”
Most books borrowed were print books
Overall, 72% of all books borrowed by Canadians in 2024 were print books, 18% were ebooks, and 10% were audiobooks, shown in the graph below. On average, Canadian library book borrowers borrowed 5.0 books a month in 2024 — 3.5 print books, 0.9 ebooks, and 0.5 audiobooks. This is very similar to 2023.
Data provided by OverDrive, the world’s leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools, offers more insight into the library circulation of ebooks and audiobooks in Canada. In 2024, 62% of all digital library checkouts were ebooks, while 38% were audiobooks, this is similar to 2023. The number of audiobook checkouts has increased 133% since 2019, with the number of ebook checkouts increasing by 44%.
Altogether, 72% of book borrowers chose print books as their preferred book format, while 17% preferred ebooks, 7% preferred audiobooks, and 4% had no format preference.
If their preferred format isn’t available, about one third of Canadian book borrowers in 2024 would borrow a book in another format (32%), another third would sometimes borrow a book in another format (36%), and less than a quarter would not borrow a book in another format (22%). The remaining Canadian book borrowers were unsure (11%). The graph below shows this question broken down by format preference. Here, Canadian book borrowers who prefer ebooks or audiobooks are the most likely groups to borrow a book in another format if their preferred format is not available.
While most Canadian book borrowers borrowed only books from the library in 2024 (72%), some book borrowers also borrowed or used other things from the library, like:
DVDs — 11%
Magazines — 7%
CDs— 5%
Similar to past years, Canadian book borrowers borrowed, rather than bought, books for these top reasons in 2024:
To save money — 52%
I don't want to spend money on it — 45%
I want to read it, but don’t want to own it (or have others to see that I’m reading it) — 34%
To support my local library — 31%
It's a habit to borrow instead of buy — 24%
Over half of Canadian book borrowers also bought new books
More than half of Canadian book borrowers only borrowed books for themselves in 2024 (61%). Other Canadian book borrowers also borrowed books for:
an adult aged 18 or over — 15%;
a middle grade child aged 8–12 — 12%;
a young child aged 4–7 — 8%;
a young adult aged 13–17 — 7%; and/or
a young child aged 0–3 — 3%.
Only 19% of Canadian book borrowers lived alone in their household in 2024. Of the the remaining 81%, 40% lived with children:
13–17 years of age — 18%;
6–8 years of age — 9%;
9–10 years of age — 9%;
3–5 years of age — 9%;
11–12 years of age — 5%; and/or
Under 3 years of age — 4%.
Canadian book borrowers became aware of the books they borrowed in 2023 in a number of ways:
Browsing genre/subject area — 44%
Having searched specifically for this book — 35%
Browsing books by author/illustrator — 29%
Read other books by the author/illustrator — 24%
Recommendation/review — 19%
The most popular social media sites among Canadian book borrowers were YouTube (64%), Facebook (65%), and Instagram (45%). That being said, 58% of Canadian book borrowers visited book-specific online social network sites or communities (e.g., 49th Shelf, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc.) in 2024.
Altogether 68% of Canadian book borrowers saw marketing campaigns or ads for the types of books they were interested in (25% yes and 43% sometimes).
Canadian book borrowers also got books in other ways in 2023:
51% bought books new
27% bought books secondhand
28% received books for free (including free downloads)
26% received books as a gift
25% borrowed books from someone they know
Want to learn more about Canadian book consumers? Read the whole thing at the link or keep your eyes on our blog for the next update from the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2024 — and sign up for the research newsletter to be the first to know about all our upcoming research!
Insights into the behaviour of Canadian book borrowers.