8 Out of 10 Adults Read Paper Books Last Year... Average of 5.4 Books per Person

Korea Publishing and Reading Policy Research Institute Survey
Survey of 1,000 Adults Aged 19 and Older

A survey found that about 8 out of 10 adults in South Korea read paper books last year.

A user reading a book in the storage room of Seoul Outdoor Library. Photo by Jo Yongjun

On September 8, the Korea Publishing and Reading Policy Research Institute, under the Korean Publishers Association, released the results of the "2024 Reading Culture Statistics" survey conducted with 1,000 citizens aged 19 and older. According to the report, 80.4% of respondents said they had read a paper book in the past year. This was followed by webtoons (41.4%), e-books (37.5%), magazines and webzines (34.9%), and web novels (27.3%).

The annual average number of books read per person was 5.4 paper books. For e-books, the average was 1.4 books; for web novels, 35.7 episodes; for webtoons, 42.8 episodes; for audiobooks, 0.8 books; for magazines and webzines, 1.1 issues; and for academic journal articles, 0.9 articles.

This survey defined reading as engaging with all types of published content. Therefore, reading included not only paper-published study guides, textbooks, exam prep books, and published comics, but also e-books, audiobooks, web novels, webtoons, webzines, and academic journal articles. Based on this definition, 87.8% of all respondents had experienced reading in the past year.

The main purposes of reading were "to broaden one’s knowledge and cultivate culture" (26.5%), "for enjoyment" (17.9%), "to acquire professional knowledge" (16.5%), and "to find comfort for the mind" (15.8%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.