While the book industry as a whole is flat so far this year, sales of Bibles are red-hot.
A series of anxiety-inducing events, from the election to inflation to international conflict, have driven more and more people to buy the book that is at the center of Christianity. Overall, sales are up 22% this year through the end of October, according to Circana BookScan.
Many of those buyers are first-timers, a curious statistic, since a growing number of Americans say they do not profess any sort of religious affiliation. A Pew Research study found that 28% of the country described themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion.
Despite that, Bible sales have been on the rise for a while. In 2019, Americans bought 9.7 million Bibles. Last year, that number jumped to 14.2 million. And in the first 10 months of this year, the number has already hit 13.7 million.
Not included in that total, by the way, is the so-called Donald Trump Bible, which includes the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” and a copy of the Constitution. Nor are copies of other religious texts, including the Quran or the Hebrew Bible.
One publisher of Bibles told the Wall Street Journal it has seen a surge of interest from Generation Z and younger Americans. There are more than 8 million posts on TikTok about the Bible, as well as a slew of videos about Bibles to buy, many with hundreds of thousands or even over 1 million likes.
Booksellers say the demand is coming both from spiritually curious people and people who already own one or more and are looking to expand their collection. And sales are on the rise not only at Christian stores, but at mainstream retailers, including Amazon.