(At retail prices)
In 2016 the turnover of the free circulation of the book market in Hungary was HUF 46,885,554,000. This means a nominal increase of 2.30% compared to the HUF 45,830,344,000 of 2015.
Since 2014, the nationalization of the public school textbook segment of the market we are not include the turnover of this segment into our statistics, but the few non-nationalized publishers still selling textbooks reported a turnover of about 7 billion from textbooks and language learning books, which we estimate to be about 40% of the total turnover of the public school textbook segment. If we include this in the statistics, then the total turnover of the market in retail prices in 2016 was HUF 53,790,946,000.
The market segment with the biggest turnover in 2016 was popular science books, 29.44% of the market total at HUF 13,804,149,000. This means an increase of 4.21% since the 2015 turnover of HUF13,245,881,000.
The gross turnover of belles-lettres and literary fiction in 2016 was HUF 12,751,817,000, which is 27.20% of the total turnover with an increase of 4.28%.(Gross turnover of the segment in 2015 was HUF 12,228,912,000.)
The segment of specialist books, scientific books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and other publications used in higher education in 2016 had a 9.31% decrease in turnover:. Gross turnover in 2016 was HUF 5,879,350,000 Ft. (In 2015, it was HUF 6,482,879,000.) The segment's total share of the market was 12.54% in 2016.
The gross turnover of children's and youth literature - serving as an engine of the Hungarian book market for years now - in 2016 was HUF 13,649,923,000, which is 29.11% of the market. This means an increase of 4.19% compared to the HUF 13,101,556,000.
Import of foreign language books (including imported textbooks) has shown an increase of 8.28%. In 2016 this segment was 9.13% of the market, with a gross turnover of HUF 4,278,835,000 (In 2015 it was HUF 3,951,476,000.)
In our questionnaire was have asked for separate data regarding traditional, paper-based books and books published on other media (CD-ROMs, audio books and e-books). The share of this segment in 2016 increased to 1.71% of the total market with a gross turnover of HUF 800,315,000.
In order to compile the statistics of the book market turnover of 2016, we used the statistical data report of 159 Hungarian publishing companies. By our estimate, the turnover of half-price books in 2016 was around HUF 800,000,000, and the estimated turnover of those publishers and institutions who only publish a couple of titles a year was around HUF 550,000,000.
Now that the biggest public-school textbook publishers are discounted, the number of those publishers that make an annual turnover above HUF 1 billion is 10. These publishers together produced 44.09% of total turnover of the market. 40 publishers produced 82.20% of the total turnover of the market, and 69 the 89.61% of it.