Toronto, ON – May 5, 2026 – New research on how Canadians spend their free time
A survey of leisure time and reading habits from industry non-profit BookNet Canada has found that over a third of Canadian readers chose to read books by or about Canadians in 2025 (35%). This has been trending up over the past five years, from 28% in 2021 to 35% in 2025.
The survey, which has been conducted by BookNet every year since 2013, asked 1,278 Canadians if they had read or listened to a book in the past year and, similar to the previous years, 79% of Canadians had. Half of all Canadians read or listened to books at least once a week (50%).
Just under half of all readers had read between 1 and 5 books in 2025 (47%), 29% read or listened to 6 to 11 books, and 25% read or listened to 12 or more books.
The majority of readers prefer to read print books (58%), followed by ebooks (18%), and audiobooks (16%). The preference for audiobooks has been rising (from 8% in 2020 to 16% in 2025), and this has mostly been driven by the younger cohorts. We found that 22% of readers 30 to 44 preferred audiobooks as did 21% of the 18 to 29 age group.
For the third year in a row, readers were acquiring books from free sources more than from paid sources. And the public library was the most popular spot to acquire books across all formats in 2025 (24% of print books were acquired from the library, 22% of audiobooks, and 21% of ebooks).
Readers were most likely to read adult fiction: 74% of print book readers, 70% of ebook readers, and 68% of audiobook listeners read adult fiction in 2025. The most popular fiction genre was Mysteries or Thrillers across all formats. Romance was the second most popular fiction genre in ebook format, and it has been steadily rising from 28% in 2021 to 36% in 2025.
Other highlights of note found in the study:
The top three reasons readers gave for reading were for enjoyment/entertainment (56%), to relax or for comfort (54%), or to become immersed in another world or to escape reality (29%).
A growing share of readers wanted to know at least some of the time where their books were printed or shipped from (55% in 2025, this is up from 50% in 2024).
The overwhelming majority of audiobook listeners prefer listening to a human narrator over synthetic (AI) narration (84%). This is the highest percentage since we started asking this question in 2022.
The full study includes data on how readers and non-readers spend their free time, how readers discover and acquire their books, readers' format preferences, popular Fiction and Non-Fiction genres, the value of books across formats, and more. Find it all in the free Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2025.
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BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. Founded in 2002 to address systemic challenges in the industry, BookNet Canada supports publishing companies, booksellers, wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, and libraries across the country.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for this project. / Nous reconnaissons l’appui financier du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du Fonds du livre du Canada (FLC) pour ce projet.
Media Contact:
Ainsley Sparkes
Marketing & Communications Manager
BookNet Canada
asparkes@booknetcanada.ca
(416) 362-5057 x 2310
