The Publishers Association is a member organisation for UK publishing representing companies of all sizes and specialisms. They exist to champion publishing to the wider world, passionate about the capacity for books and reading to make life better for people and support their members with everything they need in order to thrive.

On the 17th April, The Publishers Association released their 'A Year in Publishing' summary statistics. After another extraordinary year, with 2022 dominated by the war in Ukraine, a cost-of-living crisis, UK government changes, the publishing industry has continued to show resilience, with total publishing income once again reaching its highest overall level last year.

The summary is split into three different sections: 'Consumer', 'Education' and 'Academic', with the Education and Academic figures showing that the publishing market is continuing to recover from the decreases seen during the global pandemic.

In an era where Artificial Intelligence is evolving, social media and dis/misinformation is at the forefront of most of our lives, it was shown to be as important as ever to share high-quality learning resources that people can trust. The Academic sector is the only one of the three where growth was seen in both home and the export market in 2022. The UK's gold-standard copyright regime incentivises authors and publishers to invest in creating the latest world class content. 

In the Consumer sector, 2022 was another challenging year. Stabilising post pandemic, the UK home market has seen a modest 2% growth despite being hit with a cost-of-living crisis which led to a slight dip in sales. Growth has also been seen in the fiction, children's and audio books markets (although print format is still the overwhelming favourite).

It's great to see that the popularity of books and reading continues, expecially in the children's sectors, inspiring a life-long love of reading is a key part of what we do here at LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids and we hope that this positive outlook remains for years to come.

All information and images originated from Publishers Association. Read their breakdown of the statistics here.