World Book Day (UK and Ireland)

World Book Day
Logo used since 2026.
Observed by Ireland
 United Kingdom
TypeCharity event
Datefirst Thursday in March
2026 date5 March
FrequencyAnnual
First time23 April 1998 (1998-04-23)
Started byUNESCO
Related toWorld Book Day
World Book Night

World Book Day (Irish: Lá Domhanda na Leabhar) is a charity event held annually in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the first Thursday in March. On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK and Ireland is provided with a voucher to be spent on books; the event was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1998.

The event is the local manifestation of the original, global World Book Day organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing, and copyright, and widely observed on 23 April. Organizers in the UK moved the observance to avoid clashes with Easter school holidays and with Saint George's Day. Book publishers in Ireland decided to bring World Book Day to Ireland a number of years later.

Conversely, the World Book Night event organized by independent charity The Reading Agency is held on 23 April.