The Bible makes up a large portion of religious book sales and revenue. In order to better understand its place in the book market, we researched, analyzed, and collected 32 bible sales statistics covering everything from how many bibles are sold, how many bibles are printed, and more.
Bibles printed each year
On average, there are 100 million bibles printed each year.
It’s projected that there are more than 6 billion Bibles currently in print – 140% more than the estimated 2.5 billion copies in print as of 1975
Bibles sold per year
The number of bibles sold on average has more than doubled in the US since 1950 with:
20 million bibles sold each year
1.66 million bibles sold each month
384,615 bibles sold per week
54,945 bibles sold every day
2,289 bibles sold per hour
38 bibles sold per minute
6.4 bibles sold every 10 seconds
In addition to the bibles sold, another 115,055 bibles are given away or distributed every day
The US accounts for a quarter of newly printed bible sales every year
Bible sales revenue per year
Bible sales revenue per year is approximately $430 million as of 2020
In the world today, there are more than 80,000 different versions of the Bible that generate at least 1 sale annually.
Bible sales by publisher
Gideon’s sold and distributed approximately 100 bibles per minute, or 59.5 million, in 2016
The Good News version of the bible sold 18 million copies alone in 1995
The Bible publisher Thomas Nelson sold for $473 million in 2005
One Bible publisher, Zondervan, lists nearly 400 versions of the Bible as being in print and for sale
How many books are in the Bible
The are 66 books in the protestant Bible
These are split in a number of ways, but the major differentiation is between the old testament and the new testament.
The old testament deals with life before the birth of Jesus and prophecies of his coming.
The new testament deals with the birth, life, and death of Jesus
There are 39 books in the old testament
There are 27 books in the new testament — broken down into the letters of church leaders and the 4 gospels of Matthew, Make, Luke, and John.
There are 1,189 chapters and 31,173 verses in The Bible
In the Catholic Bible, there are 73 books — 46 in the old testament and 27 in the new testament
Books of the Protestant Bible (King James Bible)
Old Testament
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
New Testament
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
Books of the Catholic Bible (New Jerusalem Bible)
Old Testament
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Tobit
Judith
Esther
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus/Sirach
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Baruch
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
The New Testament
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts of the Apostles
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
Bible sales by version or translation
In the US, when Bible readers were surveyed as to which version or translation of the Bible they purchased and read, the data showed:
Bible Version
Percentage of Bible readers purchased
King James Version
31%
New International Version
13%
English Standard Version
9%
New King James Version
7%
Amplified
7%
Christian Community
4%
New American Standard
3%
New Living Translation
2%
Revised Standard
2%
Contemporary English Version
2%
New American Bible
2%
All others
9%
Not Sure
8%
When was The Bible written?
The Bible was written over the course of more than 1,000 years — between 1200 BC and 100 AD.
The old testament is made up of the ancient Jewish sacred scriptures that were written between 1200 BC and 165 BC.
The new testament is thought to have been written between 50 AD and 100 AD
Who wrote The Bible?
There were thought to have been more than 40 authors of The Bible
It is known who 37 of the authors were
Moses was the first person to write any portion of The Bible
John, the apostle, was the last person to write any part of The Bible
