By the Numbers: Libraries

In honor of National Library Week, April 10-16, we look at some library numbers.

252

Number of U.S. Armed Forces libraries.

934

Number of government libraries.

3,793

The number of U.S. academic libraries (1,304 are less than four-year institutions and 2,489 are four-year institutions and above).

6,966

The number of special libraries (which includes corporate, law, medical and religious libraries).

9,082

Number of U.S. public library administrative units (that includes 8,895 central buildings and 7,641 branches).

98,460

Number of school libraries in the U.S. (that includes 81,200 public school libraries, 17,100 private school libraries and 160 Bureau of Indian Affairs libraries).

119,487

The estimated number of all categories of libraries in the United States.

3,825,297

Population of the service area for the nation’s largest library in terms of population served, the Los Angeles Public Library.

23,232,682

Total holdings of the New York Public Library, which is far ahead of the No. 2 ranked Boston Public Library with a mere 9,135,613 items in its collection.

Sources: American Library Association