America’s Most Literate Cities

A study done by the Connecticut State University shows the list of the most literate cities (over 250,000 population).

Topping the list:
1. Minneapolis, MN
2. Seattle, WA
3. St. Paul, MN
4. Denver, CO
5. Washington, DC

A variety of criteria was used: Booksellers; Educational Attainment; Internet Resources; Library Resources; Newspaper Circulation; and Periodical Publications.

Lower rankings:
7. San Francisco, CA
10. Boston, MA
28. New York, NY
30. Colorado Springs, CO
40. Chicago, IL
43. Las Vegas, NV
53. Los Angeles, CA

Perhaps those long cold winters in Minnesota make for good reading weather. Though nearby Milwaukee, WI, ranks only 34.5. (Too much beer and football?) I would have thought that these other lower ranked cities would have done better, Boston, home of Harvard? New York, heart of the publishing industry itself? As for Las Vegas? Too many distractions? For the rest of the list and the methodology visit: CCSU-America’s Most Literate Cities.

This entry was posted on October 2, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Books. Tagged: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “America’s Most Literate Cities”

  1. Geoff Schumacher says:
    October 23, 2008 at 3:55 am

    I believe I’ve seen another survey of this type in which Boston ranked fairly high, as you would expect.

    I’m not surprised, though, that Las Vegas ranked low. It’s just not a reading town, at least compared with places such as Seattle and San Fran.

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