Photo: David Wilson · CC BY 2.0Clarendon Hills’ library lends 9.1 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries its size
Clarendon Hills Public Library serves Clarendon Hills’s 8,702 residents. Last year it lent 79K print books and media and logged 58K visits.
What Clarendon Hills’s library is like
Clarendon Hills is a town of borrowers
Clarendon Hills Public Library lends 9.1 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, more than 89% of similar-size libraries. What people borrow ↓
Clarendon Hills invests in its library
Clarendon Hills Public Library spends $92 per resident a year, about twice the typical $43 for a library its size. Almost all of it (90%) comes from local taxes. What your card is worth ↓
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 Clarendon Hills’ civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Clarendon Hills is ahead of 61% of U.S. towns, #247 of 754 in Illinois. 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 →
32 community nonprofits are registered in Clarendon Hills
3.6 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: education.
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 (9 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.9%
6.9% of Clarendon Hills’ Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.1% in the typical Illinois 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 Clarendon Hills’ residents live; 2022.
Books and media off the shelf
79K print loans last year. The library didn’t report its e-book and e-audiobook loans.
The survey has no count of children’s loans for Clarendon Hills’ library in 2024, so there’s no split between adults’ and kids’ borrowing.
Each of the 52K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.5 times last year, on average.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 6 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Clarendon Hills Public Library serves 8,702 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 28 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.
Find it
Clarendon Hills Public Library, 7 North Prospect Avenue, Clarendon Hills.
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 $1.81 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Clarendon Hills cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $801K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $801K 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 4,832 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Clarendon Hills ranks 3rd of 3 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hinsdale | Hinsdale Public Library fine-free | 14.7 | 67 | A− |
| Westmont | Westmont Public Library fine-free | 9.9 | 63 | C |
| Clarendon Hills | Clarendon Hills Public Library fine-free | 9.1 | 54 | B |
| Willowbrook | None of its own | — | — | C+ |
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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Clarendon Hills Public Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
- Digital loans not reported. Illinois libraries often don’t report e-book loans, so borrowing here is print only.
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 Clarendon Hills
Does Clarendon Hills have a public library?
Yes. Clarendon Hills Public Library, 7 North Prospect Avenue, serves Clarendon Hills’ 8,702 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 54 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Clarendon Hills Public Library fine-free?
Yes, no late fees (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Clarendon Hills’ library?
It logged 6.6 visits and lent 9.1 print items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Clarendon Hills’ civic life grade?
B Clarendon Hills is ahead of 61% of U.S. towns on civic life, #247 of 754 in Illinois. 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 Clarendon Hills.
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.