Bible sales double in the US, UK since 2019: 'A bigger search for hope'
Bible sales in the United Kingdom reached their highest-ever level in 2025, while in the United States they hit a 21-year high, more than doubling in value since 2019, according to reports.
The number of physical Bibles sold in the U.K. increased by 106% between 2019 and 2025, according to recent research by the Christian publisher Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
The year-on-year growth from 2024 to 2025 was 27.7%, with the English Standard Version (ESV), published by Crossway, topping the list of most purchased translations.
In the U.K., sales rose from £2.69 million ($3.6 million) in 2019 to £6.3 million ($8.4 million) last year, an increase of £3.61 million ($4.8 million) over five years. That growth figure contrasts with the £277,188 ($372,774) rise seen over the entire period from 2008 to 2019.
SPCK, one of the U.K.’s oldest religious publishers, said the new numbers reflect a significant surge in interest in printed Bibles across age groups. The trend appears to coincide with growing engagement among younger Britons in religious and spiritual questions.
“The significant and sustained upward trend in Bible sales suggests that more and more people are investigating the Christian faith themselves and seeking to draw their own conclusions about its truth,” SPCK CEO Sam Richardson told Premier Christian News.
Richardson said 2025 was the first year the organization saw indications of what he referred to as a 'Quiet Revival."
A YouGov poll published the same year found that 49% of U.K. residents aged 18 to 25 believed in a higher power.
Richardson said the figures suggest a cultural shift. “As we face worldwide political and social change, including the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, global wars, the rise of AI, and a growing mental health crisis, individuals are re-engaging with questions of meaning and spirituality.”
SPCK is the parent organization for several Christian imprints and is among the largest publishers of religious materials in the U.K.
The 2025 data represent the highest recorded sales since the group began tracking Bible distribution nationally.
In the United States, Bible sales also hit record highs, according to statistics drawn from Circana BookScan.
At 19 million units sold in the U.S., Brenna Connor, Circana's director and industry analyst for the U.S., told Publishers Weekly that "2025 marked a 21-year high for Bible sales in the U.S," a 12% increase compared to 2024 and double the figure from 2019.
The bestselling adult Bible in the U.S. in 2025 was The Invitation New Testament published by B&H.
"The greater interest in religious content in the U.S. reflects a bigger search for hope and community," Connor said, "[This] suggests that consumers are increasingly turning to faith-based resources as anchors of stability and sources of comfort during uncertain times."
American publishers cited growing interest among students and young adults in religious texts as one contributing factor to the increase. Anecdotal reports from college campuses and church groups indicated higher demand for printed Bibles over digital versions, particularly among new readers.
In 2024 in the United States, Bible sales grew at a far faster rate than the overall print book market. While total U.S. print book sales increased by less than 1% in the first 10 months that year, Bible sales rose by 22% during the same period, reaching 13.7 million copies sold, compared to 14.2 million in all of 2023, according to Circana BookScan.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that publishers attributed the surge to heightened anxiety, renewed spiritual interest and targeted marketing efforts.
“People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, was quoted as saying. “It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles … and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”
