How many books are published in the Czech Republic each year? How many are translated from Czech? How many publishing houses are registered in the Czech Republic? And which ones are among the most prolific publishers? Read some of the statistics from the 2024/2025 Report on the Czech Book Market, published by the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers.
The Report shows that in the absence of VAT 2024 is expected to show an increase of 6% over the previous year. The proportion of literature in translation (as opposed to the original) remains at around 40%, as has long been the case.
The Czech National Bibliography estimates that approximately 12,100 titles were published in the Czech Republic in 2024. As of 1 November 2025, the CNB listed 11,800 titles, but it can be assumed that, as in previous years, books with 2024 dating will continue to be added to the database and the number will reach the above-mentioned estimate.
The Report also states that the real number of titles with a 2023 release date stabilized at around 12,300. Compared to 2023, 2024 represents a year-on-year decrease of roughly 2%.
In 2024, books in the Czech language accounted for more than 88% of books produced in Czechia, which corresponds to 12,247 titles. Another 682 titles were published in Czech and another language, while 100 books were multilingual. English dominated foreign-language production, accounting for 3.2% of the total.
The Czech book market is import-driven: books published abroad are imported into the Czech Republic, mainly under copyright licenses. In 2024, 5,684 books were translated from foreign languages. The most common languages for translations were English and German. The only small change as against the last year saw Slovak and French swap third and fourth places and Italian and Spanish sixth and seventh.
A qualified estimate of the total extent of the Czech book market in 2024, including foreign literature imports, placed it at CZK 8.2 billion in the final prices, after rounding. The year 2024 was the first with 0% VAT on books; previous calculations inclusive of VAT (the rate was 10% until 2023) would show a decrease of approximately 3% as against the previous year.
Turnover from sales of printed books excluding foreign imports reached CZK 7.4 billion. When compared without VAT (as against 2023), this means an annual increase of about 4%.
As of 1 December 2025, a total of 6,321 publishing licenses had been granted in the Czech Republic under the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system. This is a slight increase of 90 entities compared to 2022. According to ISBN national agency estimates, approximately one-third of registered publishers is currently active in book publishing, another third has temporarily suspended activities, and the remaining third has ceased operations.
Prague remains the dominant publishing centre, followed by Brno. The largest private publishers in terms of number of titles published in 2024 were Albatros Media, the Euromedia Group, and Grada Publishing. As against 2023, Grada Publishing moved up to third over the Dobrovský company.
