United States: public libraries lend more electronic items, fewer physical ones
In 2024 libraries made 555M electronic loans (225M in 2016) and 1.42B loans of books, discs and other items (1.97B). Visits: 869M instead of 1.36B.
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Totals for public libraries in the 50 states and DC. An e-book can be borrowed without a visit; loans and visits are different events.
One percentage scale relative to 2016: 0% is the starting value, +100% is a doubling, −50% is a halving. Lines show the yearly path; on a short screen, bars show the change to 2024. Equal distances mean equal relative changes. For shares, this is relative change, not percentage points. Gaps are not filled; original values and units are below.
- Public library visits visits, sum of available values
1,355,514,008 (2016) → 869,121,923 (2024)
- Physical material circulation loans, sum of available values
1,970,924,714 (2016) → 1,421,398,016 (2024)
- Electronic material circulation loans, sum of available values
225,104,785 (2016) → 554,828,762 (2024)
Start: 2016; end: the latest year up to 2024 with every series (2024). Published values, no gap filling or smoothing. Thresholds select a story and do not establish statistical significance.
Library fiscal years, not a shared January–December window. Totals include source imputations; responding libraries change. This chart cannot causally separate the pandemic and the move to e-books.
A question for this picture
Did visits recover after the pandemic?