Which Countries Publish The Most Books? 📚

What We're Showing

The number of ISBNs registered in 2022 for the top countries by region.

Data comes from the International Publishers Association (IPA) and covers 76 IPA member countries, comprising around 80% of the world's population.

An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique product identifier for cataloging and tracking book sales.

Key Takeaways

• The United States is the world's largest book market by far, registering nearly four times as many ISBNs as second-place Japan in 2022.
• The U.S. is also home to the largest publishers in the world. Penguin Random House (PRH), Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster are known as the Big Five in the publishing world.
• South Korea has the highest number of publishers among the surveyed countries, with 75,324 publishers in the country.