Surprisingly, people are reading more books than before.

The latest data in Croatia show the growth in book readership of six percent in the past year, with at least one book being read by half of the population of Croatia. Most books were read by highly educated people living in bigger cities, young people and women. The data on the book market research in Croatia was presented on Friday in Zagreb.

Tamara Kraus from the GfK market research agency presented the results at the opening of the Book Night 2017 event at the National and University Library. The research has shown that over the past year at least one book was read by 53 percent of the population, compared to 47 percent in the past. “This is good news. Readers most often read four books a year, mostly borrowed fiction books, with a substantial increase in children's books as well,” she said.

As expected, most books are read in Croatian language (82 percent), with 15 percent of the books being read in English. About 40 percent of the books being read are translation of foreign works.

More than the average number of books is read in Zagreb (64 percent), and Istria and Primorje (62 percent). When it comes to buying books, books are usually bought at specialized bookstores (53 percent), mostly at a discount (56 percent). “There is also a trend of buying books on the internet, which jumped from six percent in the last year to 12 percent this year,” said Kraus.

At least one book was bought over the last three months by 908,000 citizens, which is about 25 percent of the population and represents an increase compared to last year. The largest share of readers is found in major cities (70 percent) and among highly educated people (69 percent), women (65 percent) and young people (62 percent).

“The trends shows there are fewer people who do not buy books due to financial reasons,” said Kraus. The survey showed that those who do not buy books to a large extent (59 percent) do not do it because they are not interested in the books or do not need them. The second most common reason for not buying books was the financial status (19 percent).

The last part of the survey was related to e-books, whose readership rose from eight percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2017, with electronic devices needed for reading books being owned by 72 percent of the population older than 15 years of age.

The survey was conducted in March on a sample of 1,000 respondents aged 15 and over, with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.