The cost of purchasing a book in South Korea is approaching 20,000 won ($14.80), according to recent research by the Korean Publishers Association. In 2023, the average book price was 18,633 won.
Books in the miscellaneous category were the most expensive, with an average price of 24,517 won. Other high-priced categories included history (24,289 won), social science (24,203 won), and descriptive science (24,157 won).
The study also revealed that 62,865 books were newly published in 2023, a 2.8 percent increase from the previous year. However, the total number of published copies decreased by 3.7 percent to 7,020,008,804. This trend of “more varieties and fewer volumes” reflects changing dynamics in the publishing industry, according to KPA officials.
Additionally, the number of translated books saw a 2.3 percent increase, with 17,711 published in 2023. Japanese books topped the list of translations, with 4,316 titles translated into Korean.
