A. Guttmann
Research Lead covering media
Book market in Mexico - statistics & facts
The COVID-19 outbreak posed an unparalleled challenge to the publishing industry in Mexico. Before the pandemic, the book sales revenue was increasing. The figure reached a peak in 2019, only to tumble 24.6 percent in the following year when it stood below 8.5 billion Mexican pesos. However, the most recent data from 2021 already shows that the sector is heading towards recovery. At the same time, the number of book copies printed in the North American country amounted to 93 million in 2022, whereas this figure stood at more than 145 million in 2015. Still, the beginning of the so-called "new normal" suggested a higher demand for publications. Approximately 43 percent of adults surveyed in Mexico said they read books in 2022, the highest share since 2019.
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. In 2023 it still remains at a similar level. 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 2021, 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 30 percent of the e-book sales revenue in Mexico in 2021.Motivations for and inhibitors of reading
More Mexicans are reading, and they are also reading more. The average annual number of books read by adults has continuously grown since 2019, reaching 3.9 titles in 2022, the highest figure since 2015. More than four out of ten 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 2022. Yet, however fundamental it might be, is also a pastime that people in Mexico might not find time for. Close to half of adults in the country mentioned lack of time as the main reason for not reading books. Lack of interest or motivation ranked second. Approximately 1.2 percent of people who tend to stay away from books stated that they did not have the financial resources to include the publications in their media repertoire.
