The Federation of European Publishers’ Enrico Turrin goes over industry statistics at Frankfurt Studio on October 15. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
By Eric Dupuy | @duperico
‘Less Money Per Title’
The European book market achieved its highest-ever turnover in 2024 at €24.9 billion (US$29.03 billion), surpassing the previous 2007 peak of €24.5 billion.
However, when adjusted for inflation, the industry faces a starkly different reality, according to data presented by the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) at Frankfurter Buchmesse.
“Maybe we have a problem,” acknowledged Enrico Turrin, deputy director at FEP, as he unveiled inflation-adjusted figures that paint a sobering picture.
While nominal turnover grew 2.2 percent in 2024, real turnover has plummeted to €15.5 billion–a decline from €22.2 billion in 2004 terms.
“Looking at real terms paints a very different picture,” Turrin stressed during his presentation.
Volume Decline Masks Price-Driven Growth
Image: FEP
The market expansion over the past three years has been characterized by a troubling trend: value up, volume down, with prices as the primary driver.
New research tracking print book sales across major markets—including Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Portugal, representing 75 percent of European turnover—reveals a 5.1-percent decline in units sold between 2021 and 2024.
That translates to approximately 95 million fewer books sold, even as total copies sold remain above 2.5 billion annually.
Market value at cover price reached €36.1 billion in 2024, Turrin said, following a similar trajectory to net publishers’ turnover. The total market value, including exports by European publishers and imported books, is estimated to be between €36 billion and €39 billion.
The Profitability Question
Image: FEP
The sector’s profitability concerns extend beyond inflation disparities.
Book prices went up only 38.3 percent in the past 20 years, compared to general inflation of 64.1 percent. In 2023 alone, general inflation reached 6.4 percent, while book prices rose just 4.1 percent.
“We’ve had many years in which the number of titles increased, but not the turnover, which a pure simple equation means less money per title,” Turrin said.
Additional pressures include the shift to digital formats with different business models, the rise of the second-hand market—particularly in France where one in four or five books sold is pre-owned—and increasing readership in original languages, mainly English.
New title production has stabilized around 580,000 annually, down from a 2017 peak of 610,000, suggesting potential market rationalization following the COVID-19 crisis. The active catalog now comprises 14.3 million titles, with approximately 3.4 million available in ebook or audio formats.
Market Structure and Distribution Shifts
Image: FEP
Physical bookstores continued their gradual recovery in 2024, capturing 48.2 percent of turnover, up from 43.6 percent in 2021 but still below the 50.3-percent pre-pandemic level of 2019. Online sales declined from their 2021 peak of 29.1 percent to 23.5 percent in 2024, while direct sales, including libraries and book clubs, grew to 17.3 percent.
Print books remain dominant at 82.9 percent of turnover, but audiobooks emerged as the fastest-growing segment, expanding from 2.5 percent in 2021 to 4.2 percent in 2024.
However, Turrin cautioned that this figure is “underestimated because by now almost all audiobooks are sold in subscriptions, often in mixed services.”
Country-specific data reveals dramatic audiobook growth:
- Finland up 243.8 percent since 2021,
- Italy up 233.3 percent, and
- The UK up 68.9 percent.
Ebook growth showed similar patterns, with Finland leading at 100-percent growth, followed by Sweden (54.1 percent) and the UK (23.7 percent).
Children’s Books Plateau, Exports Stabilize
Image: FEP
Children’s books, which reached 21.2 percent of turnover in 2017, have declined to 17.9 percent in 2024.
“Maybe kids are not reading as much as before, but there’s another reason that is not so obvious,” Turrin said. “We have fewer and fewer kids in a lot of countries, like Italy, for example. If you have fewer kids, you can’t sell more books to children.”
Exports recovered to 20.3 percent of turnover in 2024, rebounding from an 18.3-percent pandemic low in 2020-2021, though remaining below the 22.9 percent peak of 2015.
The Reading Crisis
Image: FEP
Perhaps most concerning is the readership data.
Eurostat’s 2022 survey revealed that 47.2 percent of Europeans aged 16 and over are non-readers. The non-reader rate increases with age, reaching 52.9 percent among those 65 and older, while gender disparities persist: 55.5 percent of men versus 39.5 percent of women report that they don’t read books.
Education proves the strongest predictor: 67.6 percent of people with low education levels don’t read, compared to 22.9 percent with a tertiary education. Notably, only 1.8 percent cite financial reasons for not reading, while 51.3 percent of resondents report “no interest.”
“We don’t need to make books cheaper. We need to make books sexier,” Turrin said.
Regional Variations and the Spanish Exception
Image: FEP
The 2024 market showed mixed regional performance.
Spain stands out as “the only big European market on a 12-year consecutive growth stretch,” with first-half 2025 figures showing 4.1-percent growth. Spain and Portugal demonstrate volume growth alongside value increases, contrasting with most European markets.
Nordic countries face distinct challenges, with audiobook market slowdowns and print sales below 2019 levels, as digital formats capture all growth. Germany and Italy struggled in early 2025, while Finland showed strong digital-driven performance.
As Europe’s largest cultural industry navigates inflation pressures, changing consumption patterns, and readership concerns, the sector faces a critical question, as Turrin put it: can nominal growth translate into sustainable profitability, or does the real-term decline signal deeper, structural challenges ahead?
Trade visitors to the 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse at the October 15 presentation of industry statistics from the Federation of European Publishwers’s Enrico Turrin. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Johannes Minkus
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