How much do public libraries spend per resident?

What the figure covers

Operating spending is everything a library pays out to run its service in a year: salaries and benefits, books and digital content, utilities, technology, maintenance and supplies. Building projects and other capital spending are excluded, which keeps a year with a new branch from distorting the comparison. Dollars are as reported, not adjusted for inflation or for the cost of living in each place.

Staff is the largest part. Among the 5,911 systems whose staff costs are published (IMLS withholds them for libraries with two or fewer full-time staff), salaries and benefits made up 67% of operating spending. Books, e-content and other materials took 10% across the 8,541 systems reporting collection spending.

Spending by state

The full ranking below divides each state's combined operating spending by its unduplicated service population. The District of Columbia tops the list as a single city system; among the states, Colorado ($84.28) and Ohio ($81.42) lead. Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee spend the least per resident.

Spending by size of community

Median spending per resident is highest in the smallest class ($64.04) and lowest among systems serving 100,000 to 249,999 people ($33.94). A small system still runs at least one building with paid staff, and that base cost is divided by few residents.

Spending per visit

Another way to read the same money is to divide it by visits. The median system spent $15.02 per visit, from $23.08 in the largest class to $15.59 in the smallest. The ratio can be high for a library whose users borrow e-books or join online classes without coming in, so it is a description of the budget's spread rather than a measure of efficiency.

Spending and use do not always line up

Ranking the 50 states and DC by visits per resident and by spending per resident gives two lists that mostly move together, with some clear exceptions. States that rank much higher for use than for money include Utah (13th for visits, 28th for spending), Iowa (7th for visits, 23rd for spending), Maine (8th for visits, 24th for spending) and South Dakota (17th for visits, 33rd for spending). States that rank much higher for spending than for visits include Oregon (21st for visits, 6th for spending), New York (19th for visits, 4th for spending), Maryland (31st for visits, 15th for spending) and California (38th for visits, 21st for spending). Differences in wages, in how visits are counted and in how much of the budget goes to services outside the building all sit behind gaps like these, so the comparison is a starting point rather than a verdict.

The largest budgets

Five systems spent more than any others in FY 2024. Their totals are large because their populations are large; per resident, they range from $58.15 to $199.24.

Who spends the national total

The table compares each size class's share of the population served with its share of all operating spending. Classes whose spending share is higher than their population share spend more per resident than the national average; those below spend less. Systems serving fewer than 2,500 people, 2,156 of them, serve 0.9% of the population and account for 1.1% of spending. The gap is widest for systems serving under 1,000 people, whose share of spending is 1.62 times their share of population, and narrowest for those serving 100,000 to 249,999 people, at 0.85 times.

Spending on books and other materials

Collection spending, the part of the budget that buys print books, e-books, audiobooks, films and database subscriptions, is easier to compare than the total because it does not depend on local wage levels in the same way. The median profiled system spent $4.16 per resident on materials in FY 2024. In the largest class the median was $3.91; in the smallest, $6.79. Collection spending is listed on each system page next to the operating total, so the share of the budget that goes to materials can be worked out for any one library. Across all systems that reported it, materials took 10% of operating spending, the rest going mainly to staff, buildings and technology.

Comparing one system

Every state page lists the highest spending per resident among its systems serving 5,000 or more, and each system page shows where its spending falls within its size class. The peer check lines it up against the six systems closest in population. Where the money comes from is covered in a separate article.