Photo: 123dieinafire · CC BY 3.0Anoka’s library lends 5.4 print items per resident, against a typical 3.2 for libraries its size
Anoka County Library serves 349,759 people in and around Anoka. Last year it lent 2.8M books, movies and e-books and logged 592K visits.
What stands out about Anoka: Rum River
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Anoka’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Anoka is ahead of 19% of U.S. towns, #233 of 271 in Minnesota. Anoka is graded on two of the three inputs. Both 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 ($57K–$95K) 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 →
39 community nonprofits are registered in Anoka
2.2 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. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.0%
7.0% of Anoka’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.4% in the typical Minnesota 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 Anoka’s residents live; 2022.
About 20 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.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Anoka County Library serves 349,759 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 151 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Anoka County Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
2.8M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
887,051 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Anoka: Rum River, 4201 6th Ave NW, Anoka.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Anoka County Library branch.
New in Anoka? 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 $3.98 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Anoka cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $11M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $43M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $11M 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 142,908 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anoka | Anoka: Rum River | — | 44 | C− |
| Coon Rapids | Coon Rapids: Crooked Lake Branch Library | — | 44 | C− |
| Champlin | Champlin Library fine-free | — | 47 | C− |
| Ramsey | None of its own | — | — | C+ |
| Andover | None of its own | — | — | C+ |
| Dayton | 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.
- System-wide. Anoka County Library serves 349,759 people in and around Anoka, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Anoka.
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 Anoka
Does Anoka have a public library?
Yes. Anoka County Library, 4201 6th Ave NW, serves 349,759 people in and around Anoka (the survey’s count) and is open about 44 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Anoka County 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 Anoka’s library?
It logged 1.7 visits and lent 7.9 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Anoka’s civic life grade?
C− Anoka is ahead of 19% of U.S. towns on civic life, #233 of 271 in Minnesota. 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 Anoka.
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.