The 33rd International Book Fair took place in Minsk from 17 to 22 March 2026. On March 20, host Vadim Shepet discussed the event on Alpha Radio and SBTV, claiming that “Belarusians love books.” He asked the program’s guest, Aliaksandr Khizhniak, the chairman of the Republican Labor and Justice Party, “Why is it important to foster a love of reading?”
“Belarusians are a nation of readers, in every sense of the word. We love books in physical form, on paper,” answered the guest of the Budni show.
Dzianis Yazerski, the Deputy Minister of Information, expressed similar views. During his visit to the exhibition on March 19, he stated that the print runs of published books, including those in Belarusian, were increasing. Previously, during a press conference for International Book Giving Day, he also discussed the country’s rich reading culture. On February 12, 2026, the state agency BelTA quoted his words in an article titled “Two Books for Each Person: How Print Runs Grow in Belarus.”
“If we divide all the books published by the total population of our country, each Belarusian would have two books. That’s a good metric, and it hasn’t changed much. It shows that our nation loves to read.”
However, the official data suggests otherwise. The number of books published in Belarus has decreased by about 30% over the past 10 years. The same trend can be observed for newspapers and magazines.
The total print run of books and pamphlets is also declining. If today there are almost two books per resident in the country, five years ago the figure was over two, and more than ten years ago it exceeded three. In other words, print runs are not growing; they are falling.
At the same press conference on the International Book Giving Day, Yazerski stated that one out of every five Belarusians reads books several times a week, and an equal number reads books several times a month. His remarks suggested that around 40% of the country’s residents read books fairly regularly.
However, this figure does not align with polling data, either. According to the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, no more than 20% of adult Belarusians read books in 2024. For comparison, a similar survey conducted a year earlier revealed that about 30% of Belarusians read books.
Library statistics are not optimistic either. The number of users and requests is gradually decreasing. In 2014, almost 3.5 million people visited libraries, but by 2024, that number had decreased to less than 2.7 million.
