The results from the Canadian Book Consumer survey are here, along with new data about Canadian book consumers — how did Canadians get books in 2024?
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 2024 we surveyed 4,212 Canadians, 49% of whom were considered book buyers.
If you’re interested in the numbers behind the graphs below, you can find our source data here and the full Canadian Book Consumer Study 2024 here.
Let’s see what we learned about Canadian book buyers in 2024.
Most Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore between one and four times a month
During a given month in 2024, 79% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore online. Another 71% of Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore in-person, up from 70% in 2023. The graph below shows the frequency of online and in-person bookstore visits by Canadian book buyers in 2024. Most Canadian book buyers visited a bookstore between one and four times in a given month — 58% of online book buyers and 62% of in-person book buyers.
Similar to last year, these are the top reasons book buyers in 2024 visited bookstores in-person:
To browse books to pass time — 30%
To browse (for) book deals/sales — 25%
To browse displays and shelves for books to buy — 25%
To browse new releases — 25%
To buy a gift — 17%
For book buyers visiting bookstores online in 2023, the top reasons were:
To browse (for) book deals/sales — 18%
To browse new releases — 16%
To check/compare prices — 16%
To browse books to pass time — 15%
These visits translated into book sales. In 2024, 54% of all book purchases made by these Canadian book buyers were online, while 46% were in-person. Shown in the graph below, these numbers continue to approach the pre-pandemic 50-50 split of online and in-person purchases.
As in past years, the consumers who bought their books online first found them by searching for a particular book (39%), while those who bought their books in-person first saw them on a main shelf (53%). The most popular social media sites among Canadian book consumers were Facebook (66%), YouTube (65%), and Instagram (46%). Over half of Canadian book buyers visited book-specific online social network sites/communities (e.g., 49th Shelf, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc.) in 2024 (58%).
Canadian book buyers purchased their books at a specific location in 2024 for these top reasons:
Convenient place to shop — 39%
Book(s) in stock/available immediately — 29%
Good price/offer/promo — 28%
Good selection of books — 24%
While 39% of Canadian book buyers had planned to buy a particular book at a specific time, most book purchases in 2024 were at least in some part spontaneous:
25% 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
16% were planning to buy a book at that specific time, but had not planned to buy a particular book
Most book purchases in 2024 were for 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 — 49% paperback and 26% hardcover. In 2024, 15% of books purchased by book buyers were ebooks and 6% 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 (70%), while others preferred ebooks (17%) or audiobooks (8%).
If their preferred book format isn’t available, would these Canadian book buyers purchase the book in another format? Almost a third said yes (30%), another third said sometimes (32%), and a quarter said no (25%). The rest of Canadian book buyers were unsure (13%). 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, as shown in the graph below.
Like in past years, Canadian book buyers in 2024 were most likely to spend $1 to $49 on books in a given month (53%), while others spent $50 to $99 (24%) or $100 or more (22%). Most of the books purchased were Adult titles (72%), though some were Young Adult (18%) and Juvenile titles (10%). The majority of books were Fiction titles (63%).
In 2024, the top subject categories purchased by these Canadian book buyers were Fantasy (19%), Suspense or Thriller (17%), and General (12%). The remaining books were Non-Fiction titles (37%). Canadian book buyers in 2024 purchased Biography or Memoir (20%), Self-Help (19%), and History (11%) as the top subject categories.
In 2024, Canadian book buyers continued to search for:
books by Canadian authors/illustrators — 32%;
books about Canada or regions within Canada — 27%; and
books about a group or culture written by people from that group or culture — 22%.
People bought books instead of borrowing because they wanted them right away and so they could re-read
Canadian book buyers bought books instead of borrowing them in 2024 because they:
wanted to be able to reread it whenever they want, as much as they want — 14%;
wanted it right away — 14%; and
wanted to own it for their display, collection, or archive — 11%.
In 2024, most Canadian book buyers became aware of the books they purchased by reading other books by the same author/illustrator (20%); from a recommendation or review (19%); or by browsing or searching online or in-person (19%).
The top reasons buyers decided to purchase a book in 2024 were an interest in the book’s subject (29%); the description of the book (20%); they liked the series (16%); or a recommendation or review (16%). However, only 19% of Canadian book buyers left their own reviews online in 2024.
Most Canadian book buyers bought books for themselves in 2024 (86%), but some bought books for someone else either as a gift (12%) or just because (2%). In 2024, Canadian book buyers bought books for a range of other people. Canadian book buyers bought books for children (60%) and other adults (40%), shown in the graph below. The age breakdown for books bought as gifts for those under 18:
a young adult aged 13–17 — 14%
a middle grade child aged 8–12 — 20%
a young child aged 4–7 — 14%
a young child aged 0–3 — 10%
Canadian book buyers also got books in other ways in 2024:
32% borrowed books from the public library
26% bought books secondhand
27% received books as a gift
24% received books for free (including free downloads)
18% borrowed books from someone they know
Want to know more about Canadian book consumers? Keep your eyes on our blog for more insights or read the whole free Canadian Book Consumer Study 2024 — and sign up for the research newsletter to be the first to know about all our upcoming research!
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