Tapping into Ebooks: Ebook Use in Canada 2022

Dive deep into the world of Canadian ebook consumers' buying, borrowing, and reading habits with the latest study from @BookNet_Canada.
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Ebooks are an integral part of the Canadian book market. Nearly 20% of all books purchased by Canadians in 2022 were ebooks, according to the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2022. At the same time, almost 70% of Canadians reported reading an ebook in 2022 in the Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2022..

Our new, free study, Tapping into Ebooks: Ebook Use in Canada 2022 , benchmarks ebook use in Canada, and reveals the buying, borrowing, and reading habits of Canadian ebook consumers. It also tracks the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ebook use, by comparing data from 2022 with past years.

Highlights from the study 

  • 36% of Canadian book buyers purchased ebooks in 2022, at an average price of $12.62 per ebook. 

  • Overall, 17% of all book purchases were ebooks in 2022. 

  • 27% of Canadian book borrowers borrowed ebooks in 2022, with the number of Canadian ebook checkouts increasing 32% from 2019 to 2022 according to OverDrive. 

  • 16% of all Canadian readers preferred ebooks in 2022 and almost half of ebook readers agreed or sometimes agreed that they would not read a book in another format, if an ebook was not available. 

  • Most Canadian ebook readers read ebooks on either a smartphone (34%) or tablet (32%) in 2022. 

  • Canadian ebook readers use a variety of ebook features while reading, including night display (72%), table of contents (72%), and zoom (71%). 

  • Canadian ebook consumers buy, borrow, and read diversely.