America's Most Literate Big Cities

Central Connecticut State University (@CCSUToday) released its annual list of most literate major cities (population of 250,000 and above) Jan. 25 with Washington, DC #1 (the second year in a row). The study focuses on 6 key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources. CCSU’s president Jack Miller says, “From this data we can better perceive the extent and quality of the long-term literacy essential to individual economic success, civic participation, and the quality of life in a community and a nation.”

Here are CCSU’s ranking of the top 20 most literate cities:

1.    Washington, DC

2.    Seattle, WA

3.    Minneapolis, MN

4.    Atlanta, GA

5.    Boston, MA

6.    Pittsburgh, PA

7.    Cincinnati, OH

8.    St. Louis, MO

9.    San Francisco, CA

10. Denver, CO

11. Portland, OR

12. St. Paul, MN

13. Cleveland, OH

14. Kansas City, MO

15. Oakland, CA

16. Raleigh, NC

17. New Orleans, LA

18. Baltimore, MD

19. Honolulu CDP, HI

20. Virginia Beach, VA

See the overall rankings of 75 cities.

To prioritize cities according to booksellers, 3 variables were used to determine a total score and consequent ranking:

  1. Number of retail bookstores per 10,000 population
  2. Number of rare and used bookstores per 10,000 population
  3. Number of members of the American Booksellers Association per 10,000 population

The following are the top 10 cities for bookstores based on the above 3 criteria:

1.    Seattle, WA

2.    Portland, OR

3.    Minneapolis, MN

4.    Cincinnati, OH

5.    New Orleans, LA

6.    St. Paul, MN

7.    Pittsburgh, PA

8.    St. Louis, MO

9.    Denver, CO

10. Albuquerque, NM

See the full list.

To prioritize cities according to libraries, 4 variables were indexed to determine a total score and consequent ranking:

  1. Number of branch libraries per 10,000 library service population
  2. Volumes held in the library per capita of library service population
  3. Number of circulations per capita of library service population
  4. Number of library professional staff per 10,000 library service population

These numbers were then divided by the city population in order to calculate ratios of library services and resources available to the population.

The following are the top 10 cities for libraries based on the above 4 criteria:

1.    Cleveland, OH

2.    St. Louis, MO

3.    Pittsburgh, PA

4.    Seattle, WA

5.    Cincinnati, OH

6.    Toledo, OH

7.    Fort Wayne, IN

8.    Kansas City, MO

9.    Columbus, OH

10. Lincoln, NE

See the full list.

Read this report in full.

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