Number of Latvian books printed at 25-year low

Take note – story published 7 years ago

In 2015 the average print run of literary works written in Latvian fell 20%, reaching a 25-year low.

Despite Latvia being hailed as the 9th most literate nation in the world, last year, the average book written in Latvian was printed in just 900 copies, according to data by Gunta Lodziņa, statistics expert at the Latvian National Library (LNB).

Literary books and booklets in Latvian (including translations) - number of copies printed since 1995.

(Source: LNB)

Despite the print runs having fallen, the number of book titles of works written in Latvian actually increased in 2015 to 417, up from 384 books in 2014.

While the total number of book titles has been virtually unchanged with 2,187 book titles printed in 2015 - the number for 2014 is 2,177 - with an average run of 1,427 copies each.

In addition, 322 magazines, 252 newspapers, 237 graphic productions (including exhibition catalogs, art albums and coloring books), as well as 328 maps and 126 printed music books were printed in 2015.

The drop in number of copies printed can be explained with falling demand and libraries purchasing fewer books for their collections, according to Dace Pugača, the head of the Latvian Publishers' Association.

Seen a mistake?

Select text and press Ctrl+Enter to send a suggested correction to the editor

Select text and press Report a mistake to send a suggested correction to the editor

Related articles

More

Most important