On June 20, 2020, Ministry of Culture and Tourism officially issued the Bulletin of Culture and Tourism Development Statistics of Ministry of Culture and tourism of the People's Republic of China in 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the Bulletin). The Bulletin directly shows the overall picture of the construction and development of public libraries in China in 2019.

In 2019, 1711 counties (cities, districts) in China have established the system of general-branch library. At the end of the year, there were 3196 public libraries and 57796 public library practitioners nationwide. Among them, there are 6966 people with senior titles, accounting for 12.1%; 18540 people with intermediate titles, accounting for 32.1%.

At the end of the year, the actual building area of the national public libraries was 16996700 square meters, with an increase of 6.5% over the end of the previous year; the total collection of books was 1117.81 million with an increase of 7.3% over the end of the previous year; the number of e-books was 865.57 million with an increase of 7.0%; the number of seats in the reading room was 1190700 with an increase of 6.6% over the end of the previous year; the number of computers was 225800, including 145700 electronic reading terminals for readers, all of which were the same as that of the previous year Basically flat.

The national per capita Book reserve is 0.79 with an increase of 0.05 compared with the end of last year; the annual per capita book purchase fee is 1.68 Yuan with a decrease of 0.09 Yuan compared with the end of last year.

Source: hhttps://www.mct.gov.cn/whzx/ggtz/202006/t20200620_872735.htm