Photo: Chris Flook · CC BY-SA 4.0Middletown’s library lends 5.4 print items per resident, against a typical 3.8 for libraries its size
Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library serves 4,665 people in and around Middletown. Last year it lent 25K print books and media and logged 3,000 visits.
What’s behind Middletown’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Middletown is ahead of 70% of U.S. towns. Middletown is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Middletown’s count of community nonprofits 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 →
7 community nonprofits are registered in Middletown
2.9 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 (3 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
13.2%
13.2% of Middletown’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 9.1% in the typical Indiana 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 Middletown’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 7 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library serves 4,665 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 10 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
25K print loans last year. The library didn’t report its e-book and e-audiobook loans.
Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 1 kids’ program 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
Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library, 780 High Street, Middletown.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library branch.
New in Middletown? 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 $2.23 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Middletown cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $170K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $379K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $170K budget.
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 1,097 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- Digital loans not reported. The library didn’t report e-book loans, so borrowing here is print only.
- System-wide. Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library serves 4,665 people in and around Middletown, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Middletown.
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 Middletown
Does Middletown have a public library?
Yes. Middletown Fall Creek Township Public Library, 780 High Street, serves 4,665 people in and around Middletown (the survey’s count) and is open about 48 hours a week, averaged over the year.
How busy is Middletown’s library?
It logged 0.6 visits and lent 5.4 print items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Middletown’s civic life grade?
B+ Middletown is ahead of 70% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Middletown.
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.