Press release No. N 006 of 23 October 2019
- Public expenditure for libraries increased by roughly 27% between 2005 and 2015
- More than half a million people attended training courses of scientific libraries in 2018
WIESBADEN – For 25 years the Day of Libraries on 24 October has underlined the importance of German libraries as cultural and educational institutions. In the Culture Finance Report 2018, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) indicates that the public expenditure for libraries increased from 1.2 to 1.5 billion euros (by around 27%) between 2005 and 2015. More than half of the public expenditure for libraries (51%) went to municipalities. From a population perspective, the Federation, Länder and municipalities spent 18.31 euros per inhabitant in Germany on libraries in 2015. The total public expenditure on culture amounted to 10.4 billion euros in 2015.