Lisbon, Sept. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The study “Buying and Reading Habits in Portugal”, presented by the Portuguese Publishers and Booksellers Association (APEL) on Wednesday, reveals that 76% of the Portuguese acknowledge having reading habits. However, only 58% have bought books in the last year.
In a publishing market that will continue to grow in 2024, with an increase of 9% to €204 million, compared to the previous figure of €187 million, 76% of Portuguese said they had read at least one book in the last year, a slight increase compared to 2023 (73%), but the number of books read per person in the population as a whole fell to an average of 5.3, down from 5.6 the previous year.
Among readers, the average number of books read also decreased, from 7.9 in 2023 to 7.2 in 2024, according to a study developed by GfK for APEL, which was presented today at the Book 2.0 - The Future of Reading meeting, taking place until Thursday at the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon.
"These results confirm that, despite the sustained growth of the book market in Portugal showing a stable base of readers, and despite the advances seen over the last five decades in access to education and access to books, buying books and reading are still not a regular practice or a daily habit strongly rooted in the majority of Portuguese families," said Miguel Pauseiro, president of APEL, quoted in the study's presentation dossier.
"The role of schools, families and society in general is crucial if books are to be definitively seen as an essential tool for citizenship and the development of human potential, and if reading is to become a sustainable lifelong habit," emphasised the representative of publishers and booksellers.
Leisure reading is an activity practised by around 60% of Portuguese aged 15 or over, according to the study, who prefer paper books to digital editions.
Women and people aged 35 to 54 are among the most loyal to books, with the 25 to 34 age group showing the highest reading rate. The biggest increase in reading is between the ages of 15 and 24.
MAG/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
