Do Germans Read Ebooks?

According to the AWA 2015 study, 8.5% of Germans read ebooks, while an additional 11.5% are interested in trying out digital reading. The number of people being opposed to digital reading is much higher: two thirds of the people polled (69.1%) are not at all interested in reading ebooks. Age is a great differentiator in this matter: only 56% of the 14 to 29-year-olds are uninterested in digital reading, compared with 86% of people over 60 years old. Corresponding to those findings is the number of people who prefer to read longer text as print books: 64% prefer reading the “traditional” way. Interestingly enough, this number has dropped in comparison to last year, when 67% preferred reading print books. The number of those who don’t have a preference between print and digital reading has risen accordingly: in 2014, 23% didn’t have a preference between print books and ebooks; in 2015, that number was 25.1%. Again, the picture changes accordingly when you look at the different age groups: within the group of younger readers aged 14-29, only 27% prefer reading longer texts in print, while the number of those who read in multiple formats has risen: in 2015, 44% read print and digital equally, up from 42% in 2014. The oldest age group, 60 and over, has yet to embrace ebooks: 86% prefer print over digital reading. Source: Publishing Perspectives