More on the Most Literate Cities in the U.S.

Back in late December I reported on the most literate cities in the U.S.

Here’s some more news from the Central Connecticut State University’s report

The bad news:

  • One of the most disturbing trends is that while Americans are becoming more and more educated in terms of their time spent in school and their education level accomplished, they are decreasing in terms of literate behaviors. This is particularly obvious in our lack of support of bookstores and the constantly diminishing circulation of newspapers.
  • We are also supporting local bookstores far less often.

But there’s also some good news:

  • Per capita publication of magazines in the United States increased in 87 percent of the cities studied.
    Libraries are staying even, with the number of library buildings, volumes in the collection, and circulation of books and other materials staying about steady in terms of the number of cities advancing and declining.
  • The internet explosion has also clearly taken effect with substantial growth of reading online. Almost all the cities have more free internet access points. More people are reading newspapers online and buying books online than in previous years.

In case you missed the rankings, here are the Top 10:

City

Overall Rank 2007

 06 Rank

 05 Rank

Minneapolis, MN 1 2 2
Seattle, WA 2 1 1
St. Paul, MN 3 5 9.5
Denver, CO 4 8 6
Washington, DC 5 3.5 3
St. Louis, MO 6 12 15
San Francisco, CA 7 9 5
Atlanta, GA 8 3.5 4
Pittsburgh, PA 9 6 8
Boston, MA 10 11 7

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