Minerva Club of Santa Maria · Photo: ELEAZARCH · CC BY-SA 4.0Santa Maria’s library runs 5.6 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 9 for libraries its size
Santa Maria Public Library serves Santa Maria’s 158,856 residents from 5 locations. Last year it lent 410K books, movies and e-books and logged 226K visits.
What Santa Maria’s library is like
Below typical on every measure
Against libraries serving 100,000+ people, Santa Maria Public Library sits below the middle on all seven per-resident measures we compare, and in the bottom 30% on seven. How it compares ↓
A place to get online
Santa Maria Public Library logs about 3,577 Wi-Fi sessions a day and has 135 public computers. That’s 8.2 sessions per resident a year. A year at the library ↓
Five places to borrow in Santa Maria
Santa Maria Public Library runs five locations, and one card works at all of them. The buildings ↓
This summary is written from the numbers on this page. Numbers are the library’s own report to the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
What’s behind Santa Maria’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Santa Maria is ahead of 2% of U.S. towns, #384 of 448 in California. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #363. Santa Maria is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Santa Maria’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($64K–$106K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
Civic life counts registered nonprofits, library visits and online volunteering groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors looking out for each other.
Library visits: IMLS Public Libraries Survey, FY2024. Nonprofits: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, October 2026. Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. How TownRatings grades civic life →
207 community nonprofits are registered in Santa Maria
1.9 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: civic groups, clubs & veterans.
Community nonprofits, by kind
Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (85 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 12 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
2.6%
2.6% of Santa Maria’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.9% in the typical California town and 7.5% nationally.
Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. ZIP-code figures, weighted by where Santa Maria’s residents live; 2022.
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Santa Maria Public Library serves 158,856 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 47 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
410K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 206K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.5 times last year, on average.
98,755 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 9 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
children’s books and media borrowed per child under 18 in Santa Maria last year.
6 places to borrow in Santa Maria
Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S. Mcclelland St., Santa Maria.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Santa Maria? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Other libraries in Santa Maria
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.87 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Santa Maria cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $5.4M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $5.4M budget.
Late fines apply to some overdue items.
Retail prices are typical, rounded down: a new book $17, a kids’ book $12, an e-book or e-audiobook $15, a movie rental $4, a class or program $10, a computer or Wi-Fi session $3. The average cardholder’s month = the library’s yearly loans, attendance and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ its 32,640 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Who has a library of their own, and how much each town borrows. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Maria | Santa Maria Public Library | 2.6 | 56 | D− |
| Orcutt | Orcutt Library | 2.6 | 36 | — unincorporated |
Loans = print + digital items borrowed in the library’s fiscal year, per person it serves. — = no library of its own, a county or regional system (its numbers cover many towns), or no report. Civic life: — = not graded (unincorporated places, whose nonprofits can’t be placed by mailing address, or towns with fewer than two of the three inputs).
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- The library’s own count. Libraries report their own visits, loans and programs. A library that didn’t respond keeps its address and hours here, with no numbers.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average; libraries are compared with others serving about as many people. How TownRatings uses library figures →
Questions about the library and civic life in Santa Maria
Does Santa Maria have a public library?
Yes. Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S. Mcclelland St., serves Santa Maria’s 158,856 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 56 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Santa Maria Public Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
It charges late fines on some overdue items, and it lends e-books and audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Santa Maria’s library?
It logged 1.4 visits and lent 2.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Santa Maria’s civic life grade?
D− Santa Maria is ahead of 2% of U.S. towns on civic life, #384 of 448 in California. The grade combines library visits per resident, community nonprofits per 1,000 residents and the share of adults 25–44 in volunteering groups. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Santa Maria.
Libraries: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024. Each library reports its own numbers. Distances are straight-line from the town center. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.