About libraries

Libraries offer an unrivalled national and local network of community sites and outreach facilities.

  • 4,125 permanent public library sites
  • A further 573 mobile libraries take books out to communities
  • The library network shares some 2.2 million square metres of space (CIPFA, 2009, Public Library Statistics)
  • Public libraries are the most popular and well-used cultural institution in the country. More people visit libraries than go to football matches, tourist attractions, museums and theatres.
  • There were 328 million visits to public libraries in 2007-2008 - around 5.4 visits per person (CIFFA op cit)
  • 46 per cent of the adult English population visited at least one library in 2006-07. Half of these visited once a month or more often. (DCMS, 2008, Taking Part: The National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport)
  • More visits are made to libraries than to museums, galleries, the theatre, the cinema, the UK's top ten visitor attractions and football matches (Social Trends 38, Visit Britain Statistics on Tourism and Research for 2007, Arts Council England, Football Association (2006 - 2007 season)
  • Over 34 million people, 58 per cent of the UK population have a library ticket (Social Trends 35, National Statistics 2005 - figures relate to 2002-2003)

Library visitors

All kinds of people use their local library

Socio-economic profile library users: AB 14% C1 30% C2 25% DE 31%
Age profile:
0-14 1.8% 15-19 4.8%, 20-24 5.4%, 25-34 12.6%, 35-44 17.3%, 45-54 15.4%, 65-74 17.4%, 75+ 9.8%
Gender: Male 41.1% Female 58.9%

(Book Facts 2001, Book Marketing Ltd, 2001)

57 per cent of black and ethnic minority adults visited at least one public library in 2006-2007 (DCMS op cit)

Sixty-eight per cent of Black African, 58 per cent Pakistani and Bangladeshi and 41 per cent of people of Black Caribbean origin used libraries in 2002-2003 (Focus of Cultural Diversity, Arts Council England 2003)

Libraries are free

Anyone living in the UK is legally entitled to borrow books free from the public library.

Libraries are cost effective

The public library service costs 36p per person per week (CIPFA op cit)

Reading

Reading is amongst the most popular social and cultural pastimes

  • Books are read in 90 per cent of UK households
  • Fiction is read by 60 per cent of adults in most age groups and 70 per cent of children aged six to 14. Non-fiction is read by 40 per cent of all groups aged 6+ and 60 per cent of those aged nine to 16 and 35 to 64. (Reading the Situation Book Reading Buying and Borrowing in Britain, Book Marketing Ltd and The Reading Agency, 2000)
  • Reading is more popular than gardening and DIY, visiting the cinema, theatre and spectator sports events
  • Reading rates have risen over the last 25 years, from 54 per cent of adults in 1977 to 65 per cent in 2002/03 (Social Trends 35, National Statistics, 2005)

The value

  • 1/4 adults and 1/5 of children read books as a special activity.
  • Book reading is perceived as quality time.
  • Fifty-two per cent of adults read books to relax or relieve stress, 27 per cent as a form of escapism, 24 per cent as a chance to use the imagination.
  • 2/3 of adults and over a half of children read books to find things out.

(Reading the Situation Book Reading, Buying and Borrowing in Britain, Book Marketing Ltd and The Reading Partnership, 2000)

Libraries and reading

Libraries are the UK's most significant providers of the reading experience

  • There are 101.3 million books in the public library service. Of these 76 million are available to borrow. (CIPFA op cit)
  • Public libraries lent 307.6 million books in 2007-2008 - that's 5 books per person. (CIPFA op cit)
  • Of these, 90.7 million were children's books, 144.4 million were adult fiction, and 72.5 million were adult non-fiction. (CIPFA op cit)
  • The most borrowed author is James Patterson, followed by Jacqueline Wilson and Daisy Meadows. The most borrowed Adult fiction and non-fiction books in 2007-2008 were Kate Moreton's The House at Riverton and James Martin's The Meaning of the 21st Century respectively. (Public Lending Right, 2009)
  • Libraries have 12.6 million active borrowers and bring books to a further 111,000 housebound readers. (CIPFA op cit)
  • The UK's busiest library is Norfolk and Norwich Millennium, which lent 1.1 million items in 2007-2008. Four libraries had more than one million visitors in the year - Norfolk and Norwich, Birmingham Central, Manchester Central and Croydon Central. (CIPFA op cit)
  • Libraries spent £91.8 million on books in 2007-2008. (CIPFA op cit)

Libraries have a unique role as providers of reading

They offer readers:

  • the opportunity for risk free experimentation with reading
  • an open, friendly, non-commercial atmosphere
  • helpful, expert staff to guide and support reading
  • the chance to help their children explore books for free
  • somewhere to borrow books for a short time when space constraints might make permanent storage difficult.

(Taking Part op cit, Reading the Situation, Book Reading, Buying and Borrowing Habits in Britain, Book Marketing Ltd and The Reading Partnership 2000)

Libraries complement bookshops

Readers view libraries and bookshops as complementary sources of books to read.

There is a clear link between borrowing and buying of books. Borrowers from public libraries are more likely to buy the books they read than non-borrowers. Eleven per cent of adults have bought books they have previously borrowed.
(Reading the Situation, op cit)