: Do empty pages need a number? I would like to start each chapter on the right side of the book, as there are few chapters with a different point of view. I know numbering has to continue

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A blank page (no number) is ambiguous: it could mean that there has been a printing error and there should have been content on that page, or the blank page could be intentional.
If you put a page number on the page, there's no ambiguity: there's no printing error, so the blank page must be intentional. This also means you can avoid the cumbersome "this page has intentionally been left blank" you sometimes see.
Example of the use of 'intentionally left blank' in an IBM manual.

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As mentioned before, you need to follow your publisher's guidelines, if there are any that cover this situation. If it's up to the author, I personally prefer to have something written on the page, even if it's just the page number. That way, it's clear that the page wasn't accidentally skipped during printing. Some publishers even require something like "This page intentionally left blank", to make it clear that you're not missing something. I once bought a reference book where a whole bunch of (non-contiguous) pages were blank due to a printing error. From the context, it was clear that something was missing, but it may not always be so.

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I was just reading a book last night that begins each chapter on an odd-numbered page, and I remembered your question and checked. When it skips the even-numbered page, that page is completely blank: no page number.

In my humble opinion, a page with just a page number and no other text looks odd, and I'd avoid it. But on the scale of things, that would be very low on my list of things to worry about.

Update

As Hobbes says, sometimes folks will put "this page intentionally left blank" or a similar message on pages that would otherwise be blank. But I can't think of any examples of this that I've seen other than in technical manuals. I've never seen this done in a novel or other non-fiction books. I presume the point is to re-assure the reader that the page is not blank because of a printing error. But in most books, if a printing error did result in a page being unintentionally left blank, that would be pretty obvious as you read the book. A sentence on the previous page would not be completed, there would be obvious missing information, etc. I think I could see it more in a legal document, where a lawyer might deliberately replace a printed page with a blank page so he could claim that the contract that his client signed never included the clause under dispute and he had no way of knowing that the other party intended for such a clause to be in there, etc.

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The usual approach I saw is to keep the page completely blank - no number, nothing, but treat it as if there was one when it comes to the sequence, so you have, say, 50, 51, [blank], 53, [blank], 55, 56... One of reasons is that even and odd pages remain to respective sides of the book, and if you are on page 51, and you want to get to 55, you flip two pages in the book, and not some nondescript number depending on number of blank pages in between.

Also, "irregular pages" - end paper, map fold-outs, color print inserts on different paper (these aren't common nowadays but you find them in XIX and earlier XX century books frequently) etc don't get page numbers at all and are skipped in the numbering altogether. All pages of the "core print" have numbers even if they don't show them. It's not infrequent for the book to start with page 7, after 1: dedication, 3: title page, 5: part header.

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The question of whether a blank verso facing a chapter title carries its page number is a question of style determined by designers (if their publishing house does not already have a fixed policy.)

Since there will be nothing on the page to index, the number is not "necessary" for that purpose. Nevertheless, it will often be be printed simply because it is easier to follow a single procedure (number every page) than it is to introduce exceptions.

If you are self-publishing, make up you own mind on what you like (and can manage). If you are not, stop worrying about things outside your control.

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