Other than a Small Market for Books, several challenges face the Arab Publishing Industry from multiple perspectives. Here are our views on the most important issues and what needs to be done.

1. Arabic Publishing Industry
Situation Analysis and Options
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2. Other than a Small Market for Books, several challenges face the Arab Publishing
Industry from multiple perspectives
Publishers Readers Authors Government Civil Society
Censorship Not enough Publishers do not Not enough Arabs Not enough data on
interesting material take risks by are reading the publishing
to read in Arabic publishing the new sector
and unknown
Lack of copyright Books are too Ambiguous Low literacy rates Not enough data on
protection expensive payment structure Arab readership
Weak distribution Lack of access to Lack of respect Lack of funds for Lack of funds for
books programs programs
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3. The market size for books in the Arab world is very small – just 10.5% of Arabs, compared to 30%
of Americans
Country Literacy Total Population Literate Population Book Purchasing Market Size
Rate Population Over 15 Over 15 Rate (%)
Egypt 71.4 74,166,499 49,691,554 35,479,770 19 6,741,156
Algeria 74.6 33,351,136 23,345,795 17,415,963 21 3,657,352 Small Market for Books
Saudi Arabia 85.0 24,174,941 13,779,716 11,712,759 29 3,396,700
• Market = approx 34 million
Morocco 54.7 30,852,969 21,597,078 11,813,602 28 3,307,809
consumers
Iraq 74.1 28,993,000 17,105,870 12,675,450 25* 3,168,862
Syria 82.5 19,407,555 12,226,760 10,087,077 29 2,925,252
• 35 million consumers =
10.5% of all Arabs
Sudan 60.9 37,707,483 22,247,415 13,548,676 19* 2,574,248
Tunisia 90.4 10,215,220 7,559,263 6,833,574 27 1,845,065
Yemen 58.9 21,732,245 11,518,090 6,784,155 19* 1,288,989 • Since the most populous
Libya 86.2 6,038,644 4,227,051 3,643,718 25* 910,929 Arab states are low-income,
this means most Arabs who
Jordan 92.7 5,728,966 3,609,249 3,345,773 27 903,359
are literate cannot afford books
UAE 90.0 4,248,477 3,398,782 3,058,903 25* 764,726
Lebanon 87.4 3,925,502 2,877,393 2,514,841 29 729,304
Palestine 92.4 3,889,267 2,177,990 2,012,462 24 482,991 • Average book price as a % of
Kuwait 93.3 2,778,650 2,056,201 1,918,436 25* 479,609
per capita income is high 
low book sales  low
Oman 83.7 2,546,323 1,706,036 1,427,952 25* 356,988
readership  low volumes of
Mauritania 55.2 3,043,638 1,826,183 1,008,053 19* 191,530 books published  lack of a
Qatar 90.2 821,311 632,409 570,433 25* 142,608 distribution network  high
Somalia 37.8 9,558,666 5,314,618 745,575 19* 141,659 book prices
Bahrain 88.3 818,509 581,141 513,148 25* 128,287
Comoros 74.2 818,434 474,692 352,221 19* 66,922 *Numbers are an average of
other rates in similar countries.
Djibouti 67.9 496,374 312,716 212,334 19* 40,343 Source: UNESCO UIS; Next
TOTAL 80.6 325,313,809 208,266,001 147,674,875 34,244,691 Page Foundation
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4. Regional benchmarks highlight the limited quantity of narrow topic breadth of books
10 regional nonprofit organizations:
 produce less than 20 books annually
 do not focus on genres outside of social
sciences & fiction
 translate mainly from English and French
Books Produced Annually
Average number of
books published
annually: 18.5
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5. Relative cost of books in the Arab world is 50 times greater than most developed nations
Implied discount to
Income per Avg Book Implied book current avg book
capita (USD) price (USD) % of income price (.0005%) price
Algeria 3620 8.00 0.22% 1.81 77%
Morocco 2250 2.90 0.13% 1.13 61%
Tunisia 3200 19.80 0.62% 1.60 92%
Egypt 1,580 2.83 0.18% 0.79 72% On average, books
Syria 4,500 16.00 0.36% 2.25 86% cost over 50 times
Jordan 2,850 9.00 0.32% 1.43 84%
more in the Arab
World than in other
Palestine 1,230 9.75 0.79% 0.62 94%
developed regions of
Lebanon 5,770 14.00 0.24% 2.89 79% the world
KSA 15440 10.14 0.07% 7.72 24%
UK 27,650 12.60 .0005%
China 4,990 1.29 .0003%
Canada 35,310 18.30 .0005%
Source: World Bank; Next Page Organization
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6. Market for Books in the Arab World: When ranked according to market size as % of population,
Lebanon, Tunisia and UAE rank high
Country Literacy Total Population Over Literate Population Over Book Purchasing Market Size Market as % of
Rate Population 15 15 Rate Population
Lebanon 87.4 3,925,502 2,877,393 2,514,841 29 729,304 0.19
Tunisia 90.4 10,215,220 7,559,263 6,833,574 27 1,845,065 0.18
UAE 90.0 4,248,477 3,398,782 3,058,903 25* 764,726 0.18
Qatar 90.2 821,311 632,409 570,433 25* 142,608 0.17
Kuwait 93.3 2,778,650 2,056,201 1,918,436 25* 479,609 0.17
Jordan 92.7 5,728,966 3,609,249 3,345,773 27 903,359 0.16
Bahrain 88.3 818,509 581,141 513,148 25* 128,287 0.16
Libya 86.2 6,038,644 4,227,051 3,643,718 25* 910,929 0.15
Syria 82.5 19,407,555 12,226,760 10,087,077 29 2,925,252 0.15
Saudi Arabia 85.0 24,174,941 13,779,716 11,712,759 29 3,396,700 0.14
Oman 83.7 2,546,323 1,706,036 1,427,952 25* 356,988 0.14
Palestine 92.4 3,889,267 2,177,990 2,012,462 24 482,991 0.12
Algeria 74.6 33,351,136 23,345,795 17,415,963 21 3,657,352 0.11
Iraq 74.1 28,993,000 17,105,870 12,675,450 25* 3,168,862 0.11
Morocco 54.7 30,852,969 21,597,078 11,813,602 28 3,307,809 0.11
Egypt 71.4 74,166,499 49,691,554 35,479,770 19 6,741,156 0.09
Comoros 74.2 818,434 474,692 352,221 19* 66,922 0.08
Djibouti 67.9 496,374 312,716 212,334 19* 40,343 0.08
Sudan 60.9 37,707,483 22,247,415 13,548,676 19* 2,574,248 0.07
Mauritania 55.2 3,043,638 1,826,183 1,008,053 19* 191,530 0.06
Yemen 58.9 21,732,245 11,518,090 6,784,155 19* 1,288,989 0.06
Somalia 37.8 9,558,666 5,314,618 745,575 19* 141,659 0.01
TOTAL 80.6 325,313,809 208,266,001 147,674,875 34,244,691
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