Lyons House · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 4.0Abbeville’s library lends 0.8 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Vermilion Parish Library serves 57,641 people in and around Abbeville. Last year it lent 988K books, movies and e-books and logged 86K visits.
What stands out about Vermilion Parish Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Abbeville’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Abbeville is ahead of 43% of U.S. towns, #27 of 105 in Louisiana. Abbeville is graded on two of the three inputs. Abbeville’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Among U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($25K–$41K) it does better, ahead of 67%.
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 →
47 community nonprofits are registered in Abbeville
4.3 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 (10 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.5%
6.5% of Abbeville’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.9% in the typical Louisiana 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 Abbeville’s residents live; 2022.
95% of borrowing is digital
988K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
941,020 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 2 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Vermilion Parish Library serves 57,641 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 86 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Vermilion Parish Library system. The library’s own count.
About 9 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
Vermilion Parish Library, 405 East Saint Victor Street, Abbeville.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Vermilion Parish Library branch.
New in Abbeville? 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 $9.91 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Abbeville cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.5M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $15M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.5M 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 23,837 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbeville | Vermilion Parish Library | — | 52 | C+ |
| Perry | None of its own | — | — | — 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.
- System-wide. Vermilion Parish Library serves 57,641 people in and around Abbeville, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Abbeville.
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 Abbeville
Does Abbeville have a public library?
Yes. Vermilion Parish Library, 405 East Saint Victor Street, serves 57,641 people in and around Abbeville (the survey’s count) and is open about 52 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Vermilion Parish 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 Abbeville’s library?
It logged 1.5 visits and lent 17.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Abbeville’s civic life grade?
C+ Abbeville is ahead of 43% of U.S. towns on civic life, #27 of 105 in Louisiana. 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 Abbeville.
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.