Number of Dutch library members stabilize

Last year a total of about 3.8 million Dutch had membership to one of the 156 libraries in the Netherlands, the same as in 2014, Statistics Netherlands announced on Friday. With that it seems that the steady decline of Dutch library members finally came to a halt.

Like in previous years, the number of adult library members declined, but that was compensated for by an increase in young members. The number of child library members increased by 2 percent to 2.3 million last year, while the number of adults decreased by 3 percent to approximately 1.5 million.

Last year more than 73.4 million physical books were borrowed, an increase of 1 percent compared to 2014. Just over half, 51 percent, were children's books. For both children's as adults' books, fiction and stories were more popular than non-fiction, accounting for 82 percent of all borrowed books.