I’m slightly suspicious of superlatives– you know, the best of this or the worst of that– so I tend to approach them with some skepticism.
Professor and researcher Dr. John W. Miller of Central Connecticut State University has just released the results of the 2008 study of America’s most literate cities. Miller, who launched the America’s Most Literate Cities study in 2003, examines six indicators of literacy:
1. newspaper circulation;
2. number of bookstores;
3. library resources;
4. periodical publishing resources;
5. educational attainment; and
6. internet resources.
Based on his review of available data, culled from other sources (such as the American Booksellers’ Association, National Center for Education Statistics, and the U.S. Census Bureau, among others), Miller reports that the most literate cities in America in 2008 were Minneapolis; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; St. Paul, Minnesota; San Francisco; Atlanta; Denver; Boston, St. Louis; Cincinnati; and Portland, Oregon.
Now I’m not saying that these cities aren’t highly literate, but it’s hard for me to believe that New York City ranked 24 on the list. With one of the most respected newspapers in the United States, thriving bookstores (just try to plow through the crowd at The Strand), and one of the best circulating and research libraries anywhere, Miller’s list has me itching to travel to these other cities to see how they bested the Big Apple.
What do you think of this list? And what would you rank as the most literate cities outside the United States?
Photo: douglemoine (Flickr creative commons)
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5 Comments... join the discussion!
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I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with this study as far as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota are concerned. The state is known for its excellent K-12 and higher education systems and the Twin Cities in general have a highly educated workforce. Plus, Minneapolis recently built a new unbelievably awesome library and city wide wifi is now a reality. Can't explain NYC for you, though. That one does seem strange.
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Chris- Thanks for your comment– I learned something new! I didn't even know UNESCO has "Cities of Literature." Iowa City is certainly deserving of such a title; it does have a rich literary culture. What other cities–in and outside the US–would you add to the list? Tanya- Agreed about Minneapolis, too; definitely an overlooked literary and artistic hotbed in the US. Just still can't understand NYC. For one thing, public transportation seems to promote reading time. Commuters are always head in a book or head in a paper or magazine!
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I'm not too surprised about NYC. It's the largest and probably the most diverse city in the country, and its renowned for its poor public education. Only the Boston, Atlanta and Washington, DC metropolitan areas rank in the country's ten largest cities, and none of them are in the top five. The rest of the highly literate cities are smaller, perhaps with smaller economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. NYC certainly has plenty of those. NYC has too much variety to make a list like this. Great numbers of urban poor, a low quality of public education, and many non-native speakers (I wonder, does New York have foreign language libraries?), surely lower its ranking. That's the best explanation I can come up with.
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I can support Portland, OR's inclusion on this list. We have an incredible library system and a number of amazing independent bookstores (including Powells – the mothership). I've also never lived anywhere with as many active book clubs as there are here. Of course NYC is a literate city, but I think looking at these statistics per capita, other cities are even more so.
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