Baltimore may have won the Superbowl on Sunday, but the results of the literary nerd Superbowl came in today, and finally D.C. won something. :) For the second year in a row, Washington, D.C. was named the U.S.'s "most literate city."
Every year since 2005, Central Connecticut State President John Miller has ranked U.S. cities with population above 250,000 according to their data on six indicators of literacy: the number of bookstores, educational attainment, internet resources, library resources, newspaper circulation, and periodical publishing resources. D.C. took the top spot, as it did last year. D.C. ranked first in the country for internet resources and for periodical publications, but as a D.C. resident who adores bookstores, I was disappointed to see that we ranked 15th in that category. The big winners in bookstores per capita were the Twin Cities: St. Paul and Minneapolis came in first and third, respectively.
As someone who has called D.C. home for a long time, I'd venture a guess that there's more interest here in the latest Congressional Budget Office report than the latest Murakami novel. But even so, people here are engaged readers, and there are resources and amenities for all tastes. Our flagship independent bookstore, Politics and Prose, holds 500 literary events a year (in fact, I attended one last night, when Susan Cain spoke about her excellent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking). We've got a wide range of high-quality hometown newspapers. And libraries like this are open to the public:
Not bad, right? :)
You can read the full study here, and these are the top ten most literate cities in 2012 :
1. Washington, D.C. (same as in 2011)
2. Seattle (same as in 2011)
3. Minneapolis (same as in 2011)
4. Pittsburgh (up from No. 6)
5. Denver (up from No. 10)
6. St. Paul (up from No. 12)
7. Boston (down from No. 5)
8. Atlanta (down from No. 4)
9. St. Louis (down from No. 8)
10. Portland, OR (up from No. 11)
Every year since 2005, Central Connecticut State President John Miller has ranked U.S. cities with population above 250,000 according to their data on six indicators of literacy: the number of bookstores, educational attainment, internet resources, library resources, newspaper circulation, and periodical publishing resources. D.C. took the top spot, as it did last year. D.C. ranked first in the country for internet resources and for periodical publications, but as a D.C. resident who adores bookstores, I was disappointed to see that we ranked 15th in that category. The big winners in bookstores per capita were the Twin Cities: St. Paul and Minneapolis came in first and third, respectively.
As someone who has called D.C. home for a long time, I'd venture a guess that there's more interest here in the latest Congressional Budget Office report than the latest Murakami novel. But even so, people here are engaged readers, and there are resources and amenities for all tastes. Our flagship independent bookstore, Politics and Prose, holds 500 literary events a year (in fact, I attended one last night, when Susan Cain spoke about her excellent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking). We've got a wide range of high-quality hometown newspapers. And libraries like this are open to the public:
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| Library of Congress Main Reading Room |
Not bad, right? :)
You can read the full study here, and these are the top ten most literate cities in 2012 :
1. Washington, D.C. (same as in 2011)
2. Seattle (same as in 2011)
3. Minneapolis (same as in 2011)
4. Pittsburgh (up from No. 6)
5. Denver (up from No. 10)
6. St. Paul (up from No. 12)
7. Boston (down from No. 5)
8. Atlanta (down from No. 4)
9. St. Louis (down from No. 8)
10. Portland, OR (up from No. 11)
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