In 2023, 13.1 million books were sold in Portugal, bringing in 187.2 million euros, a 7% increase on 2022, the Portuguese Publishers and Booksellers Association (APEL) revealed today.
According to APEL, which uses data provided by consultancy GfK, 13,176,303 books were sold in 2023, 3.6% more than in 2022. Of the total number of books sold, 13,264 were new books, publishing novelties.
In 2023, the overall turnover of the book market was 187.2 million euros, which represented an increase of 7% compared to 2022, when sales reached 175 million euros.
Even so, despite these increases, APEL considers that there was “less growth than in 2021 and 2022”, which “indicates a stabilization of the market after the breakout year of 2020 and highlights the need to resolve many of the weaknesses of both the publishing and book sectors”.
According to the data released, the majority of books sold (34.1%) concerned the children’s and youth segment, followed by fiction (32.3%) and non-fiction (30.2%).
In terms of turnover, the segment that brought in the most money for the book sector was fiction (37.3%), followed by non-fiction (35.5%) and children’s books (26.3%).
These figures are also related to the selling price of books. In 2023, the average price of a book sold increased by 3.3% to 14.21 euros, according to APEL.
On average, a book for children or young people cost 10.95 euros, while fiction cost 16.38 euros and non-fiction 16.68 euros.
Eighty percent of the books were sold in bookstores, and the remaining 20% in hypermarkets.
In terms of individual data, APEL points out that 2023 ended with “a quarter of favorable evolution in the market, both in terms of volume and value”.
The fourth quarter of 2023, from October to December, marked mainly by Christmas sales, saw sales of 63.1 million euros, an increase of 7.3% compared to the same period in 2022.
Between October and December, 4.2 million books were sold, of which 2,830 were considered new books.
