Literature
How many books are released in Denmark? How many books are sold? Which sells more: fiction or nonfiction? Statistics on book production shows the number of book release in Denmark, while the book sales statistics show the number of books sold.
Selected statistics on Literature
Number of released physical books
The statistics are based on the national bibliographic record in the Danish Book List
Books sold by genre
The statistics are based on transaction data provided by SAXO.com A/S, Indeks Retail (Bog & Idé) and Gucca. Additionally, transaction data (barcode data) is supplied by the Prices and Consumption office in the Economic Statistics department at Statistics Denmark. The data includes all unit sales of books in stores under COOP, Salling and Dagrofa.
The transaction data includes, among other things, the ISBN number of the sold book, the sale time, and the number of copies sold at the time of the transaction, as well as a few supplementary details about the purchased book, such as whether it is a physical book, e-book, audiobook, or another form of product information, depending on the data provider.
The ISBN number is used as a key to enrich the transaction data with metadata from DBK (Bogportalen) and Publizon. The information in the metadata is used to classify the books by genre, format/media, publication language, original language and binding type.
Books sold by original language
The statistics are based on transaction data provided by SAXO.com A/S, Indeks Retail (Bog & Idé) and Gucca. Additionally, transaction data (barcode data) is supplied by the Prices and Consumption office in the Economic Statistics department at Statistics Denmark. The data includes all unit sales of books in stores under COOP, Salling and Dagrofa.
The transaction data includes, among other things, the ISBN number of the sold book, the sale time, and the number of copies sold at the time of the transaction, as well as a few supplementary details about the purchased book, such as whether it is a physical book, e-book, audiobook, or another form of product information, depending on the data provider.
The ISBN number is used as a key to enrich the transaction data with metadata from DBK (Bogportalen) and Publizon. The information in the metadata is used to classify the books by genre, format/media, publication language, original language and binding type.
On the statistics – documentation, sources and method
See the documentation of statistics to learn more:
The purpose of the statistics is to shed light on the development of book publishing in Denmark. The statistics show the development in respectively the number of books published (the number of unique publications) and book titles. For example, it is possible to follow the trend in the number of first editions of fiction e-books or new editions of commercial, physical books in the field of professional literature. The statistics contain information for 2007 and onwards.
The purpose of the statistics Book Sales is to shed light on the development of book sales by Danish retailers. The statistics illustrate trends in the number of copies sold through physical retail outlets and online sales channels. The statistics are new as of 2024 and include data from the third quarter of 2022 onwards.
The purpose of the Cultural Habits Survey is to document the cultural habits of the residents of Denmark. Culture is broadly defined, as the survey covers habits within the topics of culture, media and recreational activities, e.g. concerts, performing arts, cinema, literature, exercise, digital games and hobbies. The survey has been carried out regularly since 1964. Statistics Denmark has carried out the survey from 2018-2023 and in 2024-, while previous surveys have been carried out by the Ministry of Culture. The survey has been carried out with a new questionnaire since the first quarter of 2024, and is therefore not directly comparable with previous versions.
Need more data on Literature?
You can look further in the Statbank and find more detailed information on fx the number of books sold by format.