Cyprus was the country with the lowest share of the population that had made online purchase for printed or digital books, magazines or newspapers in 2023, with only 1.4% and 0.6% respectively, compared with 13.4% and 7.2% in the EU, according to data published by Eurostat on the occasion of World Book Day.

Overall in the EU, the share of people purchasing printed books, magazines or newspapers online remained significantly larger than that for e-books, online magazines or online newspapers in 2023.

In 2023, at the EU level, 13.4% of the residents had purchased printed books online in the previous three months. This was a slight increase from 2022 (12.7%) but still below the 2021 share (14.5%).

On the other hand, the share of the population making online purchases of ebooks, online magazines or online newspapers was approximately half of printed books. Ebook purchases were made by 7.2% of the EU’s residents in 2023, indicating an increase from the 2022 share (6.6%) but remaining stable compared to 2021.

Among member states, the highest percentage of residents purchasing printed books online in the previous three months was reported in the Netherlands (23.5%), followed by Luxembourg (22.2%) and Ireland (21.1%).

The lowest shares were reported in Cyprus (1.4%), Latvia (2.9%) and Bulgaria (3.7%).

For ebooks, in the same year, the highest shares were recorded in Denmark (22.0%), the Netherlands (21.6%) and Ireland (16.9%).

The lowest were reported in Cyprus (0.6%), Bulgaria (2.0%) and Romania (2.2%).

Denmark and Finland were the only countries with more people purchasing ebooks than printed books in the three months prior to the data collection.