If a publishing team still talks about ebooks as one clean market, BookNet Canada's new July 14, 2026 report is a useful correction. The numbers do show meaningful ebook use in Canada. They do not show a reader base that behaves like a digital-only bloc.
In its launch post for Scrolling stories: Ebook use in Canada 2025, BookNet Canada says nearly 14% of all books purchased by Canadians in 2025 were ebooks, while 71% of Canadians reported reading an ebook in 2025. That difference alone is the right place to start. Reading ebooks, buying ebooks, borrowing ebooks, and preferring ebooks are related behaviours, but they are not the same behaviour.
The practical takeaway for Rex readers is straightforward: format planning should be built around price sensitivity, library-linked access, and multi-format reading habits, not around the assumption that ebook readers have abandoned print or settled into one storefront or device pattern.
Ebook reach is real, but ebook preference is narrower
BookNet's full report says 71% of Canadian readers read at least one ebook in 2025, and that share has risen from 61% in 2019. But the same report says only 24% of Canadian ebook readers preferred ebooks as a format in 2025. It also says 47% of ebook readers still preferred print books, while 20% preferred audiobooks.
That matters because it keeps format strategy honest. A market can show strong ebook usage without becoming ebook-first in preference. For many teams, that means an ebook edition is important, but it should not automatically displace print planning, audiobook decisions, or rights packaging built for more than one reading format.
BookNet's report makes the point even more clearly: 94% of ebook readers also read print books in 2025, and 74% also listened to audiobooks. In other words, the typical ebook reader is not isolated inside one format silo.
Price and libraries are doing much of the work
The report is strongest when it gets specific about acquisition. BookNet says 34% of Canadian book buyers bought ebooks in 2025 and 29% of Canadian book borrowers borrowed them. It also says Canadian ebook buyers spent an average of CAD 11.85 per ebook over the year.
But the more useful signal is not the average price by itself. It is the surrounding behaviour. BookNet says 41% of ebook buyers chose where to purchase because of a good price, offer, or promotion, compared with 29% of all Canadian book buyers. It also says 55% of ebook borrowers borrowed instead of bought because they wanted to save money.
Library access matters just as much. In BookNet's report, the most common ebook-acquisition source for Canadian ebook readers in 2025 was the public library at 21%. Online retailers or retailing apps and free internet sites each followed at 19%, while subscription services accounted for 12%.
That mix is a useful warning against lazy digital-market assumptions. If libraries are the top acquisition source, then discoverability, metadata quality, territorial availability, and borrowing friction all matter alongside retail sales tactics. A publisher that only optimizes for direct consumer purchase is reading an incomplete market.
Device habits look convenient, not brand-loyal
Device data in the same report points in the same direction. BookNet says smartphones were the most-used ebook reading device in 2025 at 36%, ahead of tablets at 30%, while dedicated e-reader use rose to 15%.
The clean lesson is not that one device category has won permanently. It is that convenience still shapes ebook behaviour. Smartphone reading is common, tablets remain important, and dedicated e-readers still matter for a meaningful minority. Teams planning digital editions should treat readability, navigation, and clean file performance as baseline requirements rather than assume one premium device experience will carry the format.
That is also why the report is more useful as workflow guidance than as a retailer or app ranking. Readers move between access points. The infrastructure work that matters most is making sure files are usable, pricing is sensible, and library as well as retail channels are supported.
The Canada-specific point is still broadly useful
This is Canadian consumer research, not a universal map of US or European ebook behaviour, and it should stay framed that way. BookNet says the ebook report combines data from the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2025 and the Canadian Leisure & Reading Study 2025, drawing on annual survey samples of 1,979 Canadians for the consumer study and 1,278 Canadians for the leisure study.
Even so, the operating lesson travels well. Publishing teams often flatten digital demand into a single sentence such as "ebooks are growing" or "print still dominates." BookNet's data is more useful because it shows the market as mixed and conditional. Readers use ebooks heavily, but many still prefer print. Buyers respond to price. Borrowers respond to cost pressure. Libraries remain central. And ebook readers often move across formats rather than commit to one.
What Rex readers should actually do
- Treat ebook demand as part of a cross-format plan rather than a replacement plan for print.
- Check whether pricing, discount timing, and library availability are doing more to shape demand than marketing language is.
- Prioritize clean metadata and distribution across both retail and library channels if digital discovery matters to the title.
- Test digital production decisions against smartphone reading reality, not only against dedicated e-reader assumptions.
- Keep market claims narrow: these are current Canadian findings, not a shortcut for every territory.
The most useful thing in BookNet Canada's new ebook report is not a victory lap for digital reading. It is a better planning picture. Ebook use in Canada is real, but it is also price-aware, library-linked, and deeply entangled with print and audio. That is the version worth building around.
For related Rex context, see our AAP April 2026 format-mix guide, our Eurostat book-workforce and format-demand guide, and our Word-to-EPUB adaptation workflow guide. If you need help turning format signals into a practical publishing plan, contact Rex Publishing.