Photo: Ajay Suresh · CC BY 4.0Sterling Heights’ library logs 1.3 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
Sterling Heights Public Library serves Sterling Heights’s 134,346 residents. Last year it lent 487K books, movies and e-books and logged 179K visits.
What stands out about Sterling Heights’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Sterling Heights’ civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Sterling Heights is ahead of 4% of U.S. towns, #693 of 697 in Michigan. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #349. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups comes closest to the middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($60K–$100K) 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 →
195 community nonprofits are registered in Sterling Heights
1.5 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 (70 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 13 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
5.0%
5.0% of Sterling Heights’ 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 Sterling Heights’ residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Sterling Heights Public Library serves 134,346 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 168 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Almost half the print loans are kids’ books
487K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 180K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.9 times last year, on average.
136,843 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 7 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 Sterling Heights last year.
Find it
Sterling Heights Public Library, 40255 Dodge Park Road, Sterling Heights.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Sterling Heights? 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 $2.42 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Sterling Heights cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $3.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $7.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3.1M 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 70,608 cardholders ÷ 12.
Libraries next door
Sterling Heights ranks 5th of 5 for borrowing per resident. Tap a town to see its library.
| Town | Library | Loans per resident | Hours | Civic life |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troy | Troy Public Library fine-free | 11.3 | 65 | B |
| Utica | Utica Public Library | 5.2 | 41 | C− |
| Warren | Civic Center Library | 4.7 | 50 | D |
| Shelby Township | Shelby Township Library fine-free | 3.9 | 57 | D |
| Sterling Heights | Sterling Heights Public Library | 3.6 | 56 | D− |
| Clinton Township | Clinton-Macomb Public Library | — | 72 | D |
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 Sterling Heights
Does Sterling Heights have a public library?
Yes. Sterling Heights Public Library, 40255 Dodge Park Road, serves Sterling Heights’ 134,346 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 56 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights’ library?
It logged 1.3 visits and lent 3.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Sterling Heights’ civic life grade?
D− Sterling Heights is ahead of 4% of U.S. towns on civic life, #693 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 Sterling Heights.
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.