Durant-Dort Carriage Company Office · Photo: Andrew Jameson · CC BY-SA 3.0Flint’s library lends 1.4 print items per resident, against a typical 3.7 for libraries its size
Gloria Coles Flint Public Library serves Flint’s 81,252 residents. Last year it lent 174K books, movies and e-books and logged 145K visits.
What stands out about Flint’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Flint’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Flint is ahead of 28% of U.S. towns, #632 of 697 in Michigan. Flint’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($28K–$47K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
444 community nonprofits are registered in Flint
5.5 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 (145 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 14 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
4.7%
4.7% of Flint’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 12.4% in the typical Michigan 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 Flint’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Gloria Coles Flint Public Library serves 81,252 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 88 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
174K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 177K books and other items on the shelves went out about 0.7 time last year, on average.
55,839 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 6 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 Flint last year.
Find it
Gloria Coles Flint Public Library, 1026 East Kearsley Street, Flint.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Flint? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Flint cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $4.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $2.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $4.1M 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 17,689 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flint | Gloria Coles Flint Public Library fine-free | 2.1 | 45 | C |
| Flint Township | Genesee District Library | — | 56 | C− |
| Genesee Township | Genesee Township-Johnson Memorial Library | — | 40 | C− |
| Burton | Burton Memorial Library | — | 40 | C |
| Mount Morris Township | Beecher Vera B. Rison Library | — | 40 | D |
| Beecher | Beecher Vera B. Rison Library | — | 40 | — graded as part of its town |
| Mundy Township | 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.
- 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 Flint
Does Flint have a public library?
Yes. Gloria Coles Flint Public Library, 1026 East Kearsley Street, serves Flint’s 81,252 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 45 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Gloria Coles Flint Public Library 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 Flint’s library?
It logged 1.8 visits and lent 2.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Flint’s civic life grade?
C Flint is ahead of 28% of U.S. towns on civic life, #632 of 697 in Michigan. 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 Flint.
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.