Photo: Visitmontrose · CC BY-SA 4.0Montrose’s library logs 4.6 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Montrose Regional Library District serves 43,591 people in and around Montrose. Last year it lent 324K books, movies and e-books and logged 200K visits.
What stands out about Montrose Regional Library District
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Montrose’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Montrose is ahead of 69% of U.S. towns, #34 of 104 in Colorado. Montrose is graded on two of the three inputs. Montrose’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
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 →
139 community nonprofits are registered in Montrose
6.6 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: human services.
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 (50 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 3 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.0%
7.0% of Montrose’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.8% in the typical Colorado 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 Montrose’s residents live; 2022.
Every hour the doors are open, about 50 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Montrose Regional Library District system. The library’s own count.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 6 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Montrose Regional Library District serves 43,591 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
324K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
89,993 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 5 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
Find it
Montrose Regional Library District, 320 South Second Street, Montrose.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Montrose Regional Library District branch.
New in Montrose? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.54 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Montrose cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $3.2M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $5M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.2M budget.
Fine-free. No late fees on books returned late.
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 27,547 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Montrose Regional Library District serves 43,591 people in and around Montrose, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Montrose.
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 Montrose
Does Montrose have a public library?
Yes. Montrose Regional Library District, 320 South Second Street, serves 43,591 people in and around Montrose (the survey’s count) and is open about 55 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Montrose Regional Library District fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks and research databases with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Montrose’s library?
It logged 4.6 visits and lent 7.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Montrose’s civic life grade?
B+ Montrose is ahead of 69% of U.S. towns on civic life, #34 of 104 in Colorado. 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 Montrose.
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.