Sales of Bible surge in UK as book market remains flat

According to Nielsen IQ, book sales in the religion category grew by 6.2 per cent compared to the first half of 2024. Four out of the five Christian sub-categories were responsible for bringing in an extra £826,404 over the period, with only Christian theology experiencing a downturn in sales of £36,704.

By contrast, the wider non-fiction market struggled in the same period, contracting by 5 per cent year-on-year, while the market as a whole grew by only 0.01 per cent.

The death of Pope Francis and the election of his successor, Pope Leo XIV, are believed to have sparked interest in Christian books, but their popularity and that of the Bible in particular has become increasingly apparent over the course of the last six years.

UK Christian publisher SPCK reported an increase in Bible sales of 87 per cent from 2019 to 2024, leading chief executive Sam Richardson to suggest that there has been a “significant cultural shift regarding matters of faith and religion”.

“Events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the mental health crisis have caused many individuals to think deeply about their spirituality,” he said. “People want to draw their own conclusions by reading Christian books in general and the Bible in particular.”

Publisher Hodder and Stoughton acquired one of the most popular series of Catholic Bibles, the Jerusalem Bible family, from Darton, Longman and Todd in 2023 and its Bibles editor, Emma Wells, said she remains “hugely excited about the forward trend in Bible sales”.

Crossway Books has released aesthetically pleasing journalling bibles that appeal to a younger generation and are prevalent on social media. The success of Crossway’s ESV Church Bible, which overtook HarperCollins’s Holy Bible: King James Version as the most popular in the UK, reflects preferences for more modern and accessible translations.

SPCK, meanwhile, advertises Bibles with “interactive elements” that makes the Scriptures “approachable and personal”.

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Bible sales surge as religious books buck sales decline in publishing (By Hugh Hudson/The Tablet)