In 2017, the number of Croats who read at least one book in those 12 months rose by three percentage points, and translated books written by foreign authors seemed to be more and more popular among readers, according to findings of an opinion poll conducted in Zagreb recently.

“Last year, 56% of Croats read at least one book, as against 53% the year before,” said Tamara Kraus of the GfK pollster, presenting the poll results at Book Night on 23 April.

The pollster started conducting such opinion polls in 2011 and the last results have been the best so far. Those who read usually read four books per year.

Broken down by region, the most avid readers are in Zagreb, with 66% of those polled in the capital city having read more books than the average, and in Istria and Rijeka (67%).

Broken down by gender, women are more ardent readers (64%).

Books that are read are most frequently borrowed from libraries (46%) or from friends (30%).

When it comes to e-books, as many as 72% of the Croatian population has access to e-books and 11% say they read e-books.

The opinion poll was conducted among 1,000 respondents aged 15 and above in March. In the previous three months, 926,470 Croats above 15 bought a book.