Canadians prefer print books to ebooks and audiobooks

The vast majority of Canadians prefer reading hardcovers and paperbacks to audiobooks and ebooks. BookNet Canada surveyed 1,247 Canadians to see if they had read or listened to a book in the past year, and 80% of Canadians had. Just over half of those readers had read between one and five books in 2023.

The majority of readers prefer to read print books (59%), followed by ebooks (20%) and audiobooks (13%). The dominance of print preference has been dropping since 2019 (from 65% to 59% in 2023), while at the same time, preference for audiobooks has been rising (from 8% in 2019 to 13% in 2023).

For the first time in their survey, readers across all formats acquired books from free sources more than paid ones. In 2023, 47% of print readers bought their books, and 51% found a free source for their reading material. Over half of audiobook listeners acquired their books for free in 2023 (58%), and ebook readers were the group most likely to get their books from a free source (62%).

Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.