Instead of a post about occultism, for a change I will deal today with “Voodoo Statistics” (i.e. please don’t shout at me too much in regard to my methodology) – in order to answer the question, what are the Top 10 Countries in which market an ebook in the English language?
By my calculations they are (biggest potential market first):
| Rank | Country | % of potential world market for English language ebooks |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | United States | 42% |
| 2. | United Kingdom | 10% |
| 3. | Germany | 8% |
| 4. | Canada | 4% |
| 5. | France | 4% |
| 6. | Australia | 3% |
| 7. | Philippines | 3% |
| 8. | The Netherlands | 3% |
| 9. | Italy | 2% |
| 10. | Spain | 2% |
“Wait!” I hallucinate that I hear you ask. “Germany above Canada? How can that be so?” Quite simple: there are more people in Germany who speak English as a second language than there are in Canada who speak it as either a first or second language. This indeed is the reason why non-anglophone countries make it onto the list at all.
Other factors used to determine ranking include % of people with Internet access and relative poverty / richness. India for example has 125,000,000 English speakers, but because over half the population live below the Poverty line (defined by the UN as earning less than $2 / day) and only 7.5% have access to the internet, the potential market for ebooks must logically be a mere fraction of this number.
Of the countries of the rest of the world, most of the member states of the European Union ranked highly. The highest ranked country in Asia was Turkey at number 14. The highest ranked country in Africa was Nigeria at number 22, whilst Brazil was the highest ranked country in South America at number 23.
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
I never knew that about Germany. Thank you for sharing this!
You’re welcome 🙂
Very interesting about the Canada stats. Nice to meet you Alex.
Thanks and welcome 🙂
Hmmm interesting reading,
I’m due to publish later this year and have really been wondering whether to even bother with a digital version at all as a few friends have had some “interesting” experiences of late.
Reblogged this on "And now for something completely different…" and commented:
Made for some interesting reading over lunch today.
Wouldn’t have thought the Philippines would have been big Ebook consumers…
The stats reflect the potential market – I didn’t take into account actual sales figures of ebooks up to now. The fact is, though, that the Phillippines is a highly-populated Anglophone country with several million people who are on the internet and are at least moderately well-off. So if sales are low there now, that is where an entrepreneur could think of expanding.
Ah ok, thanks for the clarification.
This is to be my first foray into the World of fiction and I have been toying with the idea of releasing the first two chapters as a free ebook in advance of the actual launch to see if I can’t garner some interest.
I had no idea! Wow. I would have put Canada second not thinking through the population! Duh! Excellent post! I will share this on Twitter!
Thanks! 🙂
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