Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post that turned out to be very popular. In it, I used Bookscan data reported in Publisher’s Weekly to calculate nonfiction vs. fiction book sales for adult books and children’s books for the first half of 2022.

Since another year has gone by, I thought I’d revisit the data to see how the stats may have changed. And here’s what I found:

All of 2021
Nonfiction accounted for 65% of adult books sales, but just 24% of children’s/YA book sales.

First Half of 2022
Nonfiction accounted for 63% of adult books sales, but just 24% of children’s/YA book sales.

All of 2022
Nonfiction accounted for 61% of adult books sales, but just 25% of children’s/YA book sales.

First Half of 2023
Nonfiction accounted for 60% of adult books sales, but just 24% of children’s/YA book sales.

While adult nonfiction sales have decreased during this period, they consistently account for well over half of all adult book sales. By comparison, children’s book sales are dismal, and they don’t seem to be budging.

In January 2023, the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) adopted a Position Statement on the Role of Nonfiction Literature (K-12) because despite lackluster sales “research shows that most young readers enjoy nonfiction, and many prefer it. For some children, nonfiction is a gateway to literacy as well as a portal to knowledge that sparks curiosity and fuels a sense of wonder.”

The statement urges educators to integrate more nonfiction into their lessons and to add more nonfiction to classroom libraries. Currently, classroom libraries contain four times more fiction than nonfiction, and nonfiction titles account for just 7 percent of read alouds.

The message is clear: Students need greater awareness of and access to all the rich, engaging nonfiction literature being published today. How can we make that happen?