- The total number of new book titles released annually is around 4 million.
- It can be estimated that between 500,000 to 1 million of these new titles are published through traditional publishers.
- At least 1.7 million self-published titles each year are considered to be produced.
- However, as many self-published authors do not use a trackable ISBN, this number would be increased further.
- In 2010, Google calculated that there were just under 130 million books published globally.
- Penguin Random House alone publishes 85,000 titles each year, which is the largest number of titles published by a major publishing house.
- The United States had 39,876,731 lifetime ISBN registrations as of 2020, by far the highest total of any country.
- As of 2022, more than 12.25 million ebooks are estimated to be published on Kindle.
- There were at least 71,000 audiobooks published during the year of 2020.
- As of 2008, books written in English made up 21.84% of all books published.
Number of books published by major publishers
The Big 5 dominates the book publishing market in terms of revenue from book sales when compared to independent publishers. However, when it comes to their total number of titles released, they publish between 10% and 20% of all new titles annually.
- 85,000 titles are published each year by Penguin Random House, including 15,000 in print format and 70,000 in digital format.
- Annually, HarperCollins releases more than 10,000 new publications.
- Across both print and digital formats, Hachette Book Group publishes more than 2,100 titles a year as of 2022.
- Each year, Simon & Schuster publishes over 2000 titles.
- Although not a Big 5 publisher, Scholastic is the largest US publisher in terms of children’s books, with over 750 new books annually.
Number of books published each year per country
- Per the given data available, China produced the largest number of titles for a given year during 2013 with 444,000 titles.
- As of the same year, the United States produced 304,912 titles.
- The United Kingdom produced 186,000 titles during the year of 2020.
- Furthermore, Japan, Indonesia, Italy, Russia, France and Iran have all exceeded 100,000 titles published in recent years.
| Rank | Country | Year | Number of titles | Notes |
| #1 | China | 2013 | 444,000 | New titles and re-editions |
| #2 | United States | 2013 | 304,912 | New titles and re-editions |
| #3 | United Kingdom | 2020 | 186,000 | |
| #4 | Japan | 2017 | 139,078 | New titles and re-editions |
| #5 | Indonesia | 2020 | 135,081 | |
| #6 | Italy | 2020 | 125,948 | |
| #7 | Russia | 2019 | 115,171 | |
| #8 | France | 2018 | 106,799 | |
| #9 | Iran | 2018 | 102,691 | New and revised |
| #10 | Germany | 2013 | 93,600 | New titles and re-editions |
A graph is given below to show the annual number of books published for the top 5 ranked countries:
ISBN per country
ISBN registrations enable books to be identified throughout the supply chain, in particular by publishers, retailers and libraries. They can also be used to track the minimum number of books produced by each country annually.
- Looking at ISBN registrations by country, the United States had the largest number of lifetime registrations with 39,876,731 as of 2020.
- The second largest number of lifetime registrations was from the United Kingdom with 7,900,000.
- Germany had the third largest number of lifetime registrations with 5,564,800.
- For 2020 data alone, again the US had the highest number of registrations with 3,931,270.
- The Republic of Korea had the second largest number of 2020 registrations with 329,582.
- Again, Germany came in third with 284,000 registrations for the year.
| Rank | Country | Lifetime ISBN registered | 2020 ISBN registered |
| #1 | US | 39,876,731 | 3,931,270 |
| #2 | UK* | 7,900,000 | 188,553 |
| #3 | Germany* | 5,564,800 | 284,000 |
| #4 | Republic of Korea | 3,809,109 | 329,582 |
| #5 | Spain | 2,583,325 | 80,704 |
| #6 | Japan* | 2,524,148 | 114,272 |
| #7 | Italy | 2,241,223 | 135,133 |
| #8 | Russia | 2,084,160 | 124,454 |
| #9 | Netherlands | 1,869,672 | 40,105 |
| N/A | China | N/A | 263,066 |
* ISBN data possibly underestimated
A graph is given below to show the top 5 ranked countries by total lifetime ISBN registrations:
A graph is given below to show the top 5 ranked countries by 2020 ISBN registrations:
Number of books published by language
- A study of books published by language from 2008 showed that the most common publishing language for books was English, making up 21.84% of books analyzed.
- This was almost double the amount of publications compared to the second-most popular language, Chinese (Mandarin), which made up 10.99%.
- German was the third-most popular language for book publications, making up 9.78% of the total books published.
- In addition, Spanish, Japanese and Russian each exceeded 5% of the total published titles.
| Rank | Language | Number of titles | Percentage of total |
| #1 | English | 200,698 | 21.84% |
| #2 | Chinese (Mandarin) | 100,951 | 10.99% |
| #3 | German | 89,986 | 9.78% |
| #4 | Spanish | 81,649 | 8.88% |
| #5 | Japanese | 56,221 | 6.12% |
| #6 | Russian | 48,619 | 5.29% |
| #7 | French | 44,224 | 4.81% |
| #8 | Korean | 35,864 | 3.90% |
| #9 | Italian | 34,768 | 3.78% |
| #10 | Dutch | 34,067 | 3.71% |
A graph is given below to show the top 5 most common publishing languages by percentage:
Number of books published per capita
- In terms of the number of books published per capita, the UK published 2,875 titles per million residents, as of 2014.
- This was more than 1,000 titles greater than Taiwan and Slovenia who ranked in joint-second place with 1,831 titles.
- Australia ranked much lower, with 1,176 titles per million residents.
- Dropping lower again, the US registered just 959 titles per million residents.
Number of books published each day
- Based upon a total annual number of 4 million books published each year, it can be estimated that almost 11,000 books are published daily.
- This works out to around 457 titles an hour and 8 titles a minute.
- The total number of books published includes all types of releases, from recognized authors by major publishers to unknown authors with independent publishers.
- Within the US alone, approximately 2,700 new titles are released daily.
Number of books published by category
Fiction books
- It is estimated that Fiction books make up around 11% of books published each year.
- Approximately 440,000 Fiction books are published annually.
Nonfiction books
- It is estimated that Nonfiction books make up around 88% of books published each year.
- Approximately 3.52 million nonfiction books are published annually.
Poetry books
- It is estimated that Poetry books make up around 1% of books published each year.
- Approximately 10,000 Poetry books are published annually in the US.
- Based on the market share of books globally, it can be estimated that around 40,000 poetry books are released worldwide each year.
Number of books published on Amazon
- At least 1.4 million self-published books are released through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing annually.
- However, the total number is expected to be much higher as it doesn’t account for self-published ebooks that do not have an ISBN.
- In addition to these, Amazon also publishes more than 1,000 books through its own imprints each year.
Total number of ebooks published on Kindle
- As of 2022, more than 12.25 million ebooks are estimated to be published on Kindle.
- However as of 2019, this number stood at just over 6.75 million.
- Each year, it is estimated that the number of ebooks available on Kindle increases by 1.83 million titles.
Number of audiobooks published by year
- As of 2021, in the US more than 74,000 audiobooks were published.
- This was a 4.23% increase over 2020’s 71,000.
- Out of the last 15 years, only 2009 and 2017 recorded negative growth of audiobooks produced.
Number of books published by female authors
Female authors have a high representation across best sellers in general and also dominate the Historical, Romance and Horror/Paranormal genres. Demographics show that in the US, 50.45% of authors within the US were female as of 2021.
- As of 2020, a study found that 629 of the 1,000 best selling fiction titles had female authors (62.9%).
- 27 of the best selling fiction titles were co-authored by both male and female authors.
- By looking at the “general and literary fiction” category, female authors made up an even greater 75%.
Number of books published by authors of color
Across the publishing industry, efforts have been made to increase the representation of authors of color alongside other minorities. Although minority representation has increased, recent studies show that the industry is still largely unbalanced.
- As of 2020, 10.38% of books listed on the New York Times bestsellers lists were written by authors of color.
- During 2018, a study found that 11% of books published during the year were written by authors of color.
- As of 2019, 19.6% of young adult book authors published in the UK were people of color, more than doubling 2017’s 7.1%.
- Between 2017 – 2020, less than 6% of children’s books available in the UK were authored by people of color.
Number of children’s and young adult books published annually
- In the US, the preliminary number of children’s book titles published was 21,878 during 2009.
- The preliminary number of young adult book titles published for the year was 4,644.
- The number of children’s titles published for the year were 371.10% higher than the number of YA titles produced.
- As of 2020, it is estimated that 10,000 children’s books are published annually in the UK.
Number of books published FAQ
Who is the author with the most books published?
- Corín Tellado is a Spanish romance writer that has released more than 4,000 titles during her career.
- This large number of titles would unofficially make her the author with the most works published.
- However, according to Guinness World Records, the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was given the title of the most prolific writer of all time.
- He published 1,084 titles between the years of 1934 and 2006.
What is the total number of books published in history?
- A calculation by Google in 2010 estimated that there were just under 130 million books published globally.