It’s a fun question, though, and for the the first time ever I present the data to you.
I set out to determine which states ebook buyers live in, and then I wanted to know how the states stack up against one another.
The numbers are surprising, especially when you look at per capita consumption.
Here’s how I pulled together the numbers below. Smashwords distributes over 20,000 ebooks to Barnes & Noble. They report to us a breakdown of sales by state. I summed up all Smashwords sales, broken down by state, from Barnes & Noble for the three month period of December, 2010 through February, 2011. Next, I divided each state’s sales by the sum of the total to determine the percentage of all ebooks sales from each state. Then I added US population data from the latest US census. Next, I determined what percent of the US population lives in each state. Finally, to determine the how states rank against each other on ebook sales, I normalized the data on a per capita basis. I did this by dividing each state’s percentage of overall sales they represent by the percentage of the US population they represent. Dizzy yet? This gave me the final, coolest numbers of them all, a normalized measure of per capita ebook consumption for each state.
So here’s the first set of data, where I look at which states generate the highest (and lowest) overall sales. Obviously, the states with the largest populations are likely to purchase the most ebooks.
Rank | State | Percentage of US Ebook Sales |
1 | TX | 8.57% |
2 | CA | 7.99% |
3 | NY | 5.99% |
4 | FL | 5.93% |
5 | PA | 4.13% |
6 | IL | 3.90% |
7 | VA | 3.62% |
8 | NC | 3.36% |
9 | OH | 3.16% |
10 | MI | 3.12% |
11 | GA | 2.88% |
12 | WA | 2.81% |
13 | NJ | 2.77% |
14 | IN | 2.46% |
15 | MO | 2.40% |
16 | AZ | 2.26% |
17 | CO | 2.09% |
18 | MN | 2.07% |
19 | MA | 2.04% |
20 | WI | 1.91% |
21 | MD | 1.91% |
22 | SC | 1.78% |
23 | TN | 1.63% |
24 | LA | 1.52% |
25 | AL | 1.45% |
26 | UT | 1.44% |
27 | OK | 1.38% |
28 | OR | 1.35% |
29 | IA | 1.33% |
30 | KY | 1.31% |
31 | CT | 1.13% |
32 | KS | 1.09% |
33 | AR | 0.98% |
34 | NV | 0.83% |
35 | MS | 0.72% |
36 | AK | 0.66% |
37 | NE | 0.66% |
38 | ID | 0.65% |
39 | NM | 0.65% |
40 | NH | 0.61% |
41 | ND | 0.48% |
42 | WV | 0.45% |
43 | MT | 0.42% |
44 | RI | 0.37% |
45 | HI | 0.32% |
46 | ME | 0.32% |
46 | SD | 0.29% |
48 | DE | 0.29% |
49 | WY | 0.26% |
50 | VT | 0.20% |
51 | DC | 0.09% |
Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Let’s look at per capita consumption. Take a look at the Ebook Per Capita Sales Ratio column. This is how each state stacks up against the others, adjusted for population. Alaska, which ranks #47 in terms of overall population, ranks #1 for per capita ebook purchases measured by dollar volume. With a score of 2.92, this means they purchase 292% of the per capita than the average state, or almost triple the national average. A score of 100% means average, 200% means double the average, etc. So as you see, Alaska, North Dakota and Utah round out the top three, and Mississippi, California and the District of Columbia round out the bottom three. My home state of California, really?
Rank | State | Ebook Per Capita Sales Ratio | Percentage of US Ebook Sales | State Pop | US Pop | % US Pop |
1 | AK | 2.92 | 0.66% | 698,473 | 307,006,550 | 0.23% |
2 | ND | 2.29 | 0.48% | 646,844 | 307,006,550 | 0.21% |
3 | UT | 1.58 | 1.44% | 2,784,572 | 307,006,550 | 0.91% |
4 | WY | 1.44 | 0.26% | 544,270 | 307,006,550 | 0.18% |
5 | VA | 1.41 | 3.62% | 7,882,590 | 307,006,550 | 2.57% |
6 | NH | 1.41 | 0.61% | 1,324,575 | 307,006,550 | 0.43% |
7 | IA | 1.36 | 1.33% | 3,007,856 | 307,006,550 | 0.98% |
8 | MT | 1.32 | 0.42% | 974,989 | 307,006,550 | 0.32% |
9 | ID | 1.30 | 0.65% | 1,545,801 | 307,006,550 | 0.50% |
10 | WA | 1.29 | 2.81% | 6,664,195 | 307,006,550 | 2.17% |
11 | CO | 1.28 | 2.09% | 5,024,748 | 307,006,550 | 1.64% |
12 | MO | 1.23 | 2.40% | 5,987,580 | 307,006,550 | 1.95% |
13 | MN | 1.20 | 2.07% | 5,266,214 | 307,006,550 | 1.72% |
14 | SC | 1.20 | 1.78% | 4,561,242 | 307,006,550 | 1.49% |
15 | KS | 1.18 | 1.09% | 2,818,747 | 307,006,550 | 0.92% |
16 | IN | 1.18 | 2.46% | 6,423,113 | 307,006,550 | 2.09% |
17 | OK | 1.15 | 1.38% | 3,687,050 | 307,006,550 | 1.20% |
18 | NE | 1.12 | 0.66% | 1,796,619 | 307,006,550 | 0.59% |
19 | SD | 1.10 | 0.29% | 812,383 | 307,006,550 | 0.26% |
20 | NC | 1.10 | 3.36% | 9,380,884 | 307,006,550 | 3.06% |
21 | OR | 1.08 | 1.35% | 3,825,657 | 307,006,550 | 1.25% |
22 | RI | 1.07 | 0.37% | 1,053,209 | 307,006,550 | 0.34% |
23 | TX | 1.06 | 8.57% | 24,782,302 | 307,006,550 | 8.07% |
24 | AZ | 1.05 | 2.26% | 6,595,778 | 307,006,550 | 2.15% |
25 | AR | 1.04 | 0.98% | 2,889,450 | 307,006,550 | 0.94% |
26 | WI | 1.04 | 1.91% | 5,654,774 | 307,006,550 | 1.84% |
27 | LA | 1.04 | 1.52% | 4,492,076 | 307,006,550 | 1.46% |
28 | MD | 1.03 | 1.91% | 5,699,478 | 307,006,550 | 1.86% |
29 | PA | 1.01 | 4.13% | 12,604,767 | 307,006,550 | 4.11% |
30 | VT | 1.00 | 0.20% | 621,760 | 307,006,550 | 0.20% |
31 | DE | 0.99 | 0.29% | 885,122 | 307,006,550 | 0.29% |
32 | CT | 0.99 | 1.13% | 3,518,288 | 307,006,550 | 1.15% |
33 | NM | 0.99 | 0.65% | 2,009,671 | 307,006,550 | 0.65% |
34 | FL | 0.98 | 5.93% | 18,537,969 | 307,006,550 | 6.04% |
35 | NJ | 0.98 | 2.77% | 8,707,739 | 307,006,550 | 2.84% |
36 | NV | 0.96 | 0.83% | 2,643,085 | 307,006,550 | 0.86% |
37 | MI | 0.96 | 3.12% | 9,969,727 | 307,006,550 | 3.25% |
38 | MA | 0.95 | 2.04% | 6,593,587 | 307,006,550 | 2.15% |
39 | AL | 0.94 | 1.45% | 4,708,708 | 307,006,550 | 1.53% |
40 | NY | 0.94 | 5.99% | 19,541,453 | 307,006,550 | 6.37% |
41 | KY | 0.93 | 1.31% | 4,314,113 | 307,006,550 | 1.41% |
42 | IL | 0.93 | 3.90% | 12,910,409 | 307,006,550 | 4.21% |
43 | GA | 0.90 | 2.88% | 9,829,211 | 307,006,550 | 3.20% |
44 | OH | 0.84 | 3.16% | 11,542,645 | 307,006,550 | 3.76% |
45 | TN | 0.80 | 1.63% | 6,296,254 | 307,006,550 | 2.05% |
46 | HI | 0.77 | 0.32% | 1,295,178 | 307,006,550 | 0.42% |
46 | WV | 0.76 | 0.45% | 1,819,777 | 307,006,550 | 0.59% |
48 | ME | 0.75 | 0.32% | 1,318,301 | 307,006,550 | 0.43% |
49 | MS | 0.75 | 0.72% | 2,951,996 | 307,006,550 | 0.96% |
50 | CA | 0.66 | 7.99% | 36,961,664 | 307,006,550 | 12.04% |
51 | DC | 0.46 | 0.09% | 599,657 | 307,006,550 | 0.20% |
I published my raw data online over at the Smashwords Slideshare channel. I invite the true statisticians among you to download my numbers as a starting point for further number crunching. For example, the US Census Data page, where I gathered the population data, has other interesting data sets you can throw against my data, such as median household income, age of population (under 18, over 65), college education, home ownership rates, etc., so I encourage others to mine the data for more meaning. All I ask is that you reference Smashwords as the source of the data and link back to the blog (oh, and please encourage your favorite authors to publish and distribute with Smashwords! Okay, that’s optional). Also email me links to your analysis and I’ll link to it below so others can enjoy your findings.
It’s interesting to see how the states changed position on those lists, some quite a bit, but that DC stayed at the bottom. That gives me a chuckle but doesn’t surprise me.
I bet the second graph owes a lot to population density.
it’s a long way to the bookstore in Alaska and North Dakota is likewise sparsely populated.
Density wouldn’t explain it all, but that seems like a good guess at least at the top four: well-stocked bookstores would seem likely to be few and far between in those states.
I know that if e-books had been an option when I was a teenager growing up in a rural area, I would have been interested for the instant delivery and accessibility alone. (Though in that case I think Amazon’s free shipping would probably have kept me buying physical books.)
I’ll agree with the distance thing.
When I was in grade school in rural western Kansas, it was probably a couple of hours to a bookstore. My parents don’t read books, which means I never actually went to a bookstore as a kid, so I have no idea where the nearest one actually was. But, knowing the size of the towns out there, I’m guessing a couple of hours. In high school, it was an hour to the nearest bookstore. Also the nearest Wal-mart, mall, McDonalds, etc. If I had to live in that area now, I’d probably be buying even more ebooks than I already do. And I’d have an Amazon Prime membership.
I left for college, and grad school, and never really went back. And now, THANK YOU Las Vegas Valley for your variety of stores. If it was possible to hug civilization, I’d do it.