The earliest records of book banning originate Before the Common Era. From ancient Rome to China, efforts to suppress specific authors and their recorded works regularly occurred.
But this trend didn’t just disappear. Even in the modern age, all around the globe, we can see the efforts to censor certain books. In this report, we’re focusing on the ones prohibited by the official governing bodies – governments.
*Disclaimer – the database used for this report consists of books and authors banned by federal governments (or other state institutions whose decisions apply to the entirety of the nation). This report is compiled from the available statistics, and the actual figures are expected to be much more drastic for certain countries.
- Asian countries are responsible for nearly 44% of recorded book bans worldwide.
- An additional 33% of the bans occurred in Europe, the second-most of all continents.
- North America accounts for 7.41% of all book bans worldwide, while Africa and Australia (with New Zealand) account for 6.61%.
- Only 2.38% of bans occurred in South America, mainly in Chile during the Pinochet era.
| Continent | Share of book bans |
| Africa | 6.61% |
| Asia | 43.92% |
| Australia | 6.61% |
| Europe | 33.07% |
| North America | 7.41% |
| South America | 2.38% |
- From the available records, India is the country that historically accounts for most of the book bans in the World, as 11.11% of all recorded bans occurred in India at some point.
- China is responsible for 8.99% of all book bans, and Singapore accounts for 8.47%.
- Ireland (6.35% of all bans) has the most available recorded bans outside of Asia.
- Australia and US (5.29%) close the group of the top 5 countries.
- Germany, Spain, Russia, and the UK are the remaining members of the top 10 group.
| Country | Share of worldwide book bans |
| India | 11.11% |
| China | 8.99% |
| Singapore | 8.47% |
| Ireland | 6.35% |
| Australia | 5.29% |
| United States | 5.29% |
| Germany | 4.23% |
| Spain | 4.23% |
| Russia | 3.97% |
| United Kingdom | 3.70% |
Most book banning records show that the 20th century was the century of book bans. It is, however, important to note again that these numbers are heavily biased toward the modern age due to the availability of public records:
- Over 70.9% of all publicly available recorded book bans originate from the 20th century.
- Additionally, over 16.62% of all bans occurred during the 21st century.
- 7.61% of censorship records happened between 1801 and 1900, while 2.54% of bans were recorded one century prior.
- Our database records some instances of book bans in the 14th and 16th centuries, while a few records originate even Before the Common Era.
| Century | Share of bans |
| XIV | 0.85% |
| XVI | 0.28% |
| XVII | 1.13% |
| XVIII | 2.54% |
| XIX | 7.61% |
| XX | 70.99% |
| XXI | 16.62% |
Most of the banned books are works of fiction, novels among all. There are also records of the banning of children’s books, religious texts, political manifestos, certain biographies, poetry, academic works, and even comic books:
- 42.2% of the publicly available records of book bans are instances of banning novels.
- General nonfiction accounts for 25.38% of all worldwide bans, while general fiction accounts for 8.26%.
- Political books (manifestos, pamphlets) account for 7.65% of worldwide historical bans.
- Biographies/autobiographies and religious books account for 4.28% of bans each.
- Textbooks, documents, and academic works are among the least frequently banned categories.
| Category | Share of all bans |
| Novel | 42.20% |
| Nonfiction (general) | 25.38% |
| Fiction (general) | 8.26% |
| Political | 7.65% |
| Biography/Autobiography | 4.28% |
| Religious | 4.28% |
| Manual | 2.75% |
| Children’s book | 1.53% |
| Poetry | 1.53% |
| Comic book | 0.92% |
| Academic | 0.61% |
| Documents | 0.31% |
| Textbook | 0.31% |
