America’s Most Literate Cities

We like ranking things in our country, so here’s another way to see how our cities stack up against each other. The study was conducted for cities with populations of 250,000 and up and looked at factors such as average education of the population; number of periodical publishers in the city; newspaper circulation; library support, holdings, and use; and number and sales figures of bookstores. So here they are . . . is your city amongst them?

The 50 most literate US cities*
1. Minneapolis, MN
2. Seattle, WA
3. Pittsburgh, PA
4. Madison, WI
5. Cincinnati, OH
6. Washington, DC
7. Denver, CO
8. Boston, MA
9. Portland, OR
10. San Francisco, CA
11. Columbus, OH
12. Kansas City, MO
13. St Louis, MO
14. Cleveland, OH
15. Atlanta, GA
16. St Paul, MN
17. Louisville, KY
18. Birmingham, AL
19. Scottsdale, AZ
20. Colorado Springs, CO
21. Tulsa, OK
22. Austin, TX
23. Rochester, NY
24. Norfolk, VA
25. Baltimore, MD
26. Akron, OH
27. Indianapolis, IN
28. Charlotte, NC
29. Nashville-Metropolitan Davidson Co., TN (This is my home!)
30. Baton Rouge, LA (and this is where I was born/went to college!)
31. Tucson, AZ
32. Omaha, NE
33. Sacramento, CA
34. Honolulu, HI
35. Milwaukee, WI
36. Tampa, FL
37. Miami, FL
38. Montgomery, AL
39. Oklahoma City, OK
40. Toledo, OH
41. Albuquerque, NM
42. Lincoln, NE
43. New Orleans, LA
44. San Diego, CA
45. Fort Wayne, IN
46. Philiadelphia, PA
47. Las Vegas, NV
48. Virginia Beach, VA
49. New York City, NY
50. Shreveport, LA

*2004