A new report by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland entitled ‘The Cultural and Community Role of Wales’s Bookshops shines a spotlight on the vital and growing role Wales’s bookshops play as engines of community building, cultural enrichment, and boosting the Welsh language - while warning that this contribution remains fragile without targeted support.
 
You can read the report in English here and in Welsh here.
 
Wales is currently home to 116 bookshops, including 64 independent bookshops, representing significant growth since 2017. However, the report finds that this progress remains precarious, with closures continuing to occur due to rising operating costs, structural pressures on in-person retail and high streets, and limited access to cultural funding. Against this backdrop, Wales’s bookshops are delivering an extraordinary range of community, cultural and educational activity, often at their own expense.
 
Drawing on unprecedented survey data representing nearly half of Wales’s independent bookshops alongside in-depth interviews with bookshops across the country (including Waterstones), the report illustrates how bookshops in Wales contribute far beyond the retail sector alone. Fostering children’s literacy and reading for pleasure, supporting libraries and local charities, acting as key cornerstones of the Welsh language, championing Welsh writers and publishers, and acting as trusted cultural and community hubs in towns, cities and rural areas across Wales.
 
The report also identifies barriers that risk undermining this work and future growth, including limited access to funding, high operating costs, time pressures on small businesses, and ongoing challenges facing in-person retail on the high street. It sets out clear, practical recommendations to ensure bookshops across Wales can continue to deliver cultural and community value.
A key recommendation is the establishment of a Culture Voucher Scheme for 16–21-year-olds in Wales. Building on successful European models and the Welsh Government’s own Schools Love Reading initiative, the scheme would improve access to cultural experiences, reduce inequality, and deliver direct economic support to Wales’s  bookshops and cultural venues.
 
If you have any questions about the report, please contact [email protected] – please feel free to use it in your local advocacy work, and with your suppliers and partners.
 
If you would like to cover any aspects of the report in the media, please contact [email protected]
 
Please find the press release here.