How many books?

There are always reports about which country read the most books. A while ago, one of my blogger friends talked about that in one of his posts (see here, thank you CyberKitten).

During a visit, my mother counted my books once but she stopped at a thousand. That was about thirty years ago. I would not be able to count them today. I have a list of the fiction and some non-fiction books I read (more than 2000) but those are by far not all the books we have in the house. Not even half.

So, I have no idea. I only keep the books I liked but since I am quite picky in which ones I start, there are not that many that I don't keep. LOL

According to statistics, 53% of German citizens had fewer than 50 books, 23% had 50-100 and only 6% had over 200 books at home. On average, around 100 books per person (household). The statistics are from 2008. Then my household is certainly in the 6% with around 1000 books. And if they had another part with several thousands, we'd be in there.

I doubt I need to ask any of my fellow bloggers what group they belong to. All I know is, we always had a lot of books in our house. We always read to our children. They both became avid readers.

If you are interested in the nitty-gritty, I did find some information on how many books are read supposedly in Germany. I translated directly from the sites what I thought might be interesting for this post.

"On average, a household with children between the ages of six and 13 has 132 books, and the children have an average of 26 books of their own. In households with higher formal education (high school diploma/university degree), the inventory is significantly higher at 297 books (children: 43 books).

Reading and reading frequency prove to be extremely stable over time. 83% of the population aged 15 and over read at least one book (including e-books) in 2019, and almost 30% even read more than one book per month.

This was the result of a recent YouGov survey (see here). According to this, 13 percent of Germans estimate their private book collection to be 10 books or fewer, 30 percent to be between 11 and 50 books. According to their own estimates, 22 percent have between 51 and 100 books on their shelves, and one in three (31 percent) have even more.

April 23 is celebrated as World Book and Copyright Day following a decision by the 28th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995. (see here). In India, the country where the most books are read in the world, every citizen spends about 10 hours and 42 minutes reading per week.

Research has shown that reading books regularly can likely help reduce the risk of dementia. Researchers found that the disease rate was lower in intellectually active people. And not only that. Normally, the performance of the brain decreases with age. 

Although people still read a lot in Germany, who reads how much is unevenly distributed. The biggest readers are those aged 50-59; in this age group, 28 percent read almost every day."

"An average of 151 books in German households

The study collected data from adults between the ages of 25 and 65 from 31 countries. The results were astonishing: The average number of books per household is 115, with Scandinavian and former Soviet countries showing the highest number at 212.

The front runner is Estonia with 218. The lowest number of books is in Turkish households with an average of 27, while Germany is in the upper midfield with 151.

The research shows that with about 80 books in the home library, the children's literacy rate increases to average.

The connection between reading books and professional success, or at least a higher future salary, is also clear in a 2012 study by the economist Giorgio Brunello. If adolescents voluntarily read at least ten books in their youth, they earn around 21 percent more as adults. The amazing thing was that the type of books read had no influence on the result. The main thing is that there were ten or more..." (see here)