Photo: Artsistra · CC BY-SA 4.0Portland’s library lends 10 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries its size
Portland Public Library serves Portland’s 9,428 residents. Last year it lent 111K books, movies and e-books and logged 49K visits.
What Portland’s library is like
Portland is a town of borrowers
Portland Public Library lends 10 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, more than 92% of similar-size libraries. What people borrow ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Portland Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All four libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Portland out-borrows every town next door
At 11.8 loans per resident, Portland leads the five towns here. The closest is Glastonbury, at 11.0. Libraries next door ↓
Kids borrow more here than almost anywhere
Children’s books and media are 39% of print loans, and kids’ borrowing per resident is higher than at 86% of similar-size libraries. That works out to about 18 items per child in Portland last year. Kids & programs ↓
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 Portland’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Portland is ahead of 66% of U.S. towns, #63 of 155 in Connecticut. Library visits hold 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 →
44 community nonprofits are registered in Portland
4.7 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
7.0%
7.0% of Portland’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.5% in the typical Connecticut 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 Portland’s residents live; 2022.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
111K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 71K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.4 time last year, on average.
15,071 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Portland Public Library serves 9,428 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 43 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
About 3 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 Portland last year.
Find it
Portland Public Library, 20 Freestone Ave., Portland.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Portland? 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 $2.26 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Portland cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $775K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.7M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $775K 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 3,194 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Portland borrows the most per resident of the 5 towns here. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland | Portland Public Library | 11.8 | 49 | B+ |
| Glastonbury | Welles-Turner Memorial Library fine-free | 11.0 | 64 | B− |
| Cromwell | Cromwell Belden Public Library fine-free | 8.8 | 50 | B− |
| East Hampton | East Hampton Public Library fine-free | 8.2 | 49 | A− |
| Middletown | Russell Library fine-free | 5.5 | 60 | B− |
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 Portland
Does Portland have a public library?
Yes. Portland Public Library, 20 Freestone Ave., serves Portland’s 9,428 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 49 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Portland 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 Portland’s library?
It logged 5.2 visits and lent 11.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Portland’s civic life grade?
B+ Portland is ahead of 66% of U.S. towns on civic life, #63 of 155 in Connecticut. 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 Portland.
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.