Number of affiliated bookshops in Catalonia up 30% since 2008

The Catalan Guild of Bookshops has 324 members and continues to gain new members, with 30% more than in 2008.

The vast majority of establishments are found in the Barcelona area, while there are none at all in nine counties, mainly in the Ponent and Alt Pirineu areas.

Affiliated bookshops account for 90% of the turnover of all bookshops in Catalonia, and although there is no updated data for the whole, the guild states that its growth is a reflection of the boom in the sector in general.

Catalonia leads the overall number of stores in Spain, according to figures from the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers (CEGAL), but it has a ratio below the national average.

The rate of bookshops in Catalonia is 5.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, which falls below the 5.8 of Spain as a whole. It also falls behind other autonomous communities such as Madrid (5.7) and the Basque Country (6.1), but ahead of the Valencian region (4.9) and Andalusia (4.5).

CEGAL's figures also show that Catalonia has more overall bookshops than any other territory in Spain, with 460, which represents 14.7% of all such stores in Spain.

Comparing the figures with those of the Catalan Guild, it can be seen that three in four bookshops are affiliated with the association. 

The president of the booksellers' guild, Eric del Arco, acknowledges that not all bookshops "should" be affiliated, but he welcomes that there are more and more. This is an indicator, he says, that "the sector is alive, it is participative, and it is growing."

"Sometimes I meet booksellers from all over Spain and they look at us with great envy," he says. According to del Arco, Catalan book stores have "a lot of character and professionalism," and the sector's "cultural role" stands out.