A person picking up books from the delivery box.

When shopping online in 2024, print remained the preferred format for readers, with 14.7% of EU residents purchasing printed books, magazines or newspapers online in the 3 months before the survey - more than double the 6.8% who downloaded e-books or audiobooks. 

The highest shares of residents buying printed books, magazines or newspapers online were reported in Ireland (28.3%), the Netherlands (23.5%) and Luxembourg (22.7%). By contrast, the lowest shares were reported in Cyprus (2.0%), Latvia (3.8%) and Romania (5.3%).

Online purchases of books and publications, 2024, % of the population, in 3 months before the survey. Chart. See link tot he full dataset below.

Source dataset: isoc_ec_ibgs

For e-books and audio books, the highest shares were recorded in Ireland (22.3%), Denmark (19.7%) and Luxembourg (13.3%), while the lowest proportions were reported in Bulgaria (1.8%), Latvia (2.5%) and Romania (2.6%).

In 3 EU countries - Denmark, Cyprus and Finland – the share of the population who bought e-books and audio books exceeded that of printed books.

This news article is published to mark the World Book and Copyright Day.