Romania is in the last place in the European Union for book consumption, with only 7% of Romanians who read regularly. Bucharest absorbs half of the sales of book, and young people are further from reading, supplying a vicious circle of lack of education and misinformation.
The sad statistics of Romanians who do not want to read at all / Photo source: Archive
Terrible reading figures in Romania. Only 7% of Romanians open a book more
The Romanian book market crosses a difficult period, marked by a low consumption and a marked concentration of sales in the big cities, especially in Bucharest. While Europe registers constant growth in reading and access to culture, Romania remains the last place for active readers, with only 7% of Romanians who read regularly, according to Mihai Mitrică, the director of the publishers’ Association, quoted by News.ro.
“51% of young people in the big cities say they have not read any book in the last year. Imagine what is the situation in the small urban and in the rural areas! About 1.3 million people go to libraries, bookstores, book fairs in a year, in Romania. That is 7% of the population” said Mihai Mitrică.
Romania is in the last place in the European Union on book consumption
Romania is in the last place in the European Union for book consumption, says Mihai Mitrică. With a market of only 60 million euros per year, we are equal to Bulgaria, which has a population three times smaller. Hungary, which has half of the population of Romania, has a market of 110 million euros per year.
The successive policies of the governments, oriented against education and culture, have led to catastrophic consequences that have exceeded the sphere of theory and have been poured into political, economic and social life. The impact of conspiracy theories and lack of productivity are two of these effects. Abandoned by the state, parents are looking for desperate individual solutions, and this is seen in the strong ascension of the children’s book market.
“I reached the last place for the consumption of book because education was the main enemy of Romanians’ education. If a child is not from school set to consume the book and take care of his cognitive capacity and critical thinking, he is practically pushed to an area where he becomes captive to conspiracy, manipulations.” says the quoted source.
All the public attending bookstores, libraries and book fairs – that is, the population reading – is 1.3 million people, ie about 7% of the total inhabitants. The rural area and the small urban are completely missing, the small book market being restricted to Bucharest (which has half the market share) and another 4-5 big cities, most of Transylvania.
The devastating effects that lack of reading among the daily life of Romanians
These realities, which the Bolojan Government also ignores as the previous governments have done, are transposed into the explosion of popularity of conspiracy theories, in the fact that we have the greatest weight of the young “Neets” (disappeared from the radar of the authorities because they are neither in the education system nor in vocational training) produces nothing.
“We now have the largest population of young people who are neither at school, nor employees, so-called Neets. We are talking about young people who become a burden that society is still going. It is an economic problem first and foremost.” he says.
“Reading is the best vaccine against misinformation,” says the director of the Editors Association
“Reading is the best vaccine against misinformation. A reader is a man who educates his critical thinking. It is only difficult to do this when you have an educational system quasid. Other than the books on the compulsory list and, on the other hand, to look at those children to have access. Mihai Mitrică stressed.
The director of the Romanian Editors Association warns that the book market is constantly decreasing, the volume of sales is reduced, and soon there will be no bookstores – which have disappeared from the rural and small cities. Mihai Mitrică has some solutions to stop this catastrophic regress of the Romanian people, and the first of them is – banal – compliance with the laws already in force.
What are the few Romanians who enjoy a pleasant reading nowadays.
According to the director of the Romanian Editors Association, the fiction is still in the top.
“After pandemic I noticed a strong increase in non-fiction, because we needed to return to the reference information. And I am happy to see more and more non-fiction authors.
We are talking about books of popularization of science, about monographs. I am fresh in my mind the example of the book about the Iorga of Georgian Taranu, which, fortunately, we will have at the Bookfest from Târgu-Mureş that we prepare. But there are many! Many of the Romanian authors have realized, on the one hand, that they can write for children, and this is very healthy, because in this way we educate a growing market segment and which largely supplement the failure of the educational system, and on the other hand we form future readers for the other segments. You leave the book for children and you arrive in the book for teenagers, then you reach the Beletristic, in fiction and you can turn into a perfectly functional adult just reading! I do not say that school is not important, but only from these efforts you can turn into a perfectly functional adult, if you keep the reader’s pace ” he said.
