Library Usage Statistics by State, Visits per Person in 2022

Key points from the map

• Wyoming has the most public library visits per person, 3.82 in the 2022 fiscal year, followed by Washington, DC at 3.78 and Ohio at 3.41.
• Hawaii is far below every other state at 0.60 visits per person. The next lowest is West Virginia at 1.21.
• Most of the ten lowest states are in the South: West Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, with California and Nevada also in the bottom ten.
• The highest rates run across the Mountain West, the Midwest and New England, where Massachusetts (3.16), Vermont and Maine (both 3.06) and Connecticut (2.99) all score highly.
• The note on the graphic says the data comes from about 9,000 public libraries with about 17,000 outlets, counting main libraries, branches and bookmobiles.

All figures are from the USAFacts map, which cites the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as its source.

The library usage statistics map in text

Title: Per-person library visits by state. Subtitle: Public library visits per capita, FY 2022. Each state is shaded from light lavender (fewest visits, 0.6) to dark plum (most, 3.82). Alaska and Hawaii are shown as insets, and small north-eastern states and DC have labelled callouts.

Side panel, most public library visits per capita: Wyoming 3.82, Washington, DC 3.78, Ohio 3.41, Kansas 3.32, Wisconsin 3.24, Colorado 3.19, Massachusetts 3.16, Iowa 3.14, Utah 3.07, Idaho 3.06.

Side panel, fewest public library visits per capita (the heading on the graphic is spelt “vists”): Nevada 1.66, South Carolina 1.52, California 1.51, North Carolina 1.49, Tennessee 1.40, Texas 1.35, Georgia 1.30, Mississippi 1.30, West Virginia 1.21, Hawaii 0.60.

The full table below lists every value printed on the map, sorted from most to fewest visits per person. Where values are tied, states are listed in alphabetical order.

Footer: “Note: Data collected from approximately 9,000 public libraries with approximately 17,000 individual public library outlets (main libraries, branches, and bookmobiles). Source: Institute of Museum and Library Services.” USAFacts logo.

What “visits per capita” measures

The figure is the number of visits recorded by public libraries in a state, divided by its population. A value of 3.82 means Wyoming’s libraries logged nearly four visits for every resident in the year, not that each resident went four times. Some people visit every week and many never go, so the number is an average across everyone.

The data comes from IMLS, an independent agency of the United States federal government set up in 1996. Its research office runs the Public Libraries Survey, which collects data from about 9,000 public library systems and 17,000 outlets [2], the same counts given in the note on the map. The note on the map says the count covers main libraries, branches and bookmobiles, so it describes visits to library outlets. The map does not say whether online use, such as e-book loans, is included, and we have not assumed either way.

How states compare

The gap between the top and bottom of the map is large. Wyoming’s rate is more than six times Hawaii’s (3.82 against 0.60), and more than double the rate of Texas (1.35) and Georgia (1.30). California (1.51), Texas (1.35) and Florida (1.67) all sit in the lower part of the table, while Wyoming, Vermont and Maine sit near the top.

The map shows the pattern but does not explain it. It gives no data on library funding, opening hours or the number of branches per state, so it cannot show why rates differ. USAFacts posted the map on Reddit’s r/dataisbeautiful as original content, with the same IMLS source [1].

Notes on this infographic

• Spelling. The heading of the lower table reads “Fewest public library vists per capita”. It should read “visits”.
• Ties in the top ten. Idaho is listed tenth at 3.06, but South Dakota, Vermont and Maine have the same value on the map and are not in the side panel.
• One year only. The figures are for the 2022 fiscal year. The map gives no earlier or later years, so it cannot show whether a state’s rate is rising or falling.
• Source pages. We could not open the IMLS survey pages to check the state figures directly; the agency’s site returned “page not found” for its survey pages when we checked. The values here are as printed by USAFacts.
• Infographic Website also hosts a second USAFacts map of the same 2022 data with a different title and layout, listed under related infographics.

Sources

1. USAFacts, Public library visits per capita in the US [OC], r/dataisbeautiful. The creator’s own post of this map.
2. Wikipedia, Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Last reviewed 30 October 2026