Book market in Mexico - statistics & facts

Digital books in a post-pandemic scenario

Another trend flourished in 2021. The percentage of adults who read e-books in Mexico hit a record high of 21.5 percent – two times higher than the share recorded in 2018. The figure indicates that the digital book segment is becoming less of a niche in Mexico and more of a strategic part of the overall publishing business. Already in 2020, Mexico alone accounted for more than 11 percent of the Spanish-language e-book sales revenue worldwide. That was more than Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru combined. And e-reader users have clear preferences in terms of genre. Contemporary fiction and self-help altogether accounted for about one-third of the e-book sales revenue in Mexico in 2020.

Motivations for and inhibitors of reading

More Mexicans were reading, and they were also reading more. The average annual number of books read by adults has continuously grown since 2019, reaching 3.7 titles in 2021, the highest figure since 2016. More than two out of five consumers surveyed in Mexico said they read for the sake of entertainment, while work or study-related reasons were mentioned by about one-fourth of respondents in 2021. Yet, reading might be fundamental, but it is not always pleasant – or affordable. Seven out of 10 adults in Mexico mentioned lack of time or interest as their reason for not reading books. Lack of money ranked third. Approximately 16.5 percent of people who tend to stay from books stated that they did not have the resources to include the publications in their media repertoire.

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