New Data on the UK’s Translated Fiction Readers

From Publishing Perspectives:

Nielsen’s 2022 Books and Consumers data looked at monthly updates on 3,000 United Kingdom book buyers aged 13 to 84.

. . . .

In an age in which much of the world book publishing industry focuses a preponderance of its output—and workforce—on women as the majority consumers, it’s worth placing some of the gender-related data here first. Surely by now, a review of the “guys don’t read” trope is called for.

According to the newly released analysis, while only 32 percent of overall UK fiction buyers are male, 48 percent of translated fiction buyers are male.

“With reports that young men are reading less fiction than ever,” the foundation writes in its report, “publishers and retailers will be encouraged to see a publishing sector in which male readers are on a par with females.”

Here’s a bit more of a breakdown in regard to the gender criterion:

  • Females aged 13 to 24 make up the largest purchase group for translated fiction, with 15.5 percent of all buys
  • Females aged 25 to 34 are the next largest, at 13.7 percent of all translated fiction purchases

But then, women seem to pass the baton to men. The next highest purchase groups are:

  • Males aged 45 to 59 (13.6 percent, effectively the equivalent of the 15-t0-24 group at 13.7 percent led by females)
  • Males aged 25 to 34 (11.2 percent) register as the fourth purchase group

Overall, the Nielsen Book data indicates that readers of translated fiction in the United Kingdom in 2022 were “significantly younger” than readers of fiction generally.

Buyers aged 25 to 34 purchased almost a quarter (24.9 percent) of all translated fiction in the United Kingdom in 2022, an increase from 21 percent in 2021. The second highest purchase group is 13-24 year olds, indicating that book buyers younger than 35 account for almost half of all translated fiction purchases.

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives

2 thoughts on “New Data on the UK’s Translated Fiction Readers”

  1. I am a male,

    I don’t read literature

    Therefore I don’t read.

    you could also add a condition of i don’t read romance, that being the only other category where the world book publishing industry focuses a preponderance of its output

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