The Netherlands has witnessed a surge in its book buyers lately. Residents have bought about 43.2 million books in 2022, which is a 0.4% increase from 2021. Several reasons contributed to the growth, including the spike of audiobooks (as per the reports of CPNB) and the reclaimed edge of traditional bookstores after the ghastly pandemic. There was also an uptick in English-language book sales, contributing further to the increased overall sales.
Rise of Foreign Language Books
Although people read several genres, it seemed like the Dutch-language books suffered from a downtick. This could be justified by its sales which decreased by 3 % in 2022. Amidst the genres, the fiction genre in Dutch suffered a considerable drop of 10%. The readers were drawn more toward English and foreign language books. When the sales were monitored, about one in five books sold in the country was of foreign language. In that, too, the sales of English books were most dominant.
Traditional Bookstores Regains Pace
Due to the pandemic, traditional bookstores had to witness a pause for the past two years. However, now that the pandemic has come to an end, it seems that conventional bookstores have redeemed their pace. Last year, Dutch readers bought about 16% more from traditional bookstores. This eventually increased the turnover by 25%. Although the numbers were a little lower than the 2019 values, yet it saw substantial growth as compared to the pandemic. Also, about 51 million physical books were lent by readers, which was 34% more than in 2021.
Despite the growth of traditional bookstores, the distribution of audiobooks and e-books through subscription services increased by 76%. The residents did purchase 6% fewer loose e-books (as compared to 2021). However, the popularity of both ebooks and audiobooks was pretty extensive in 2022.
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.