Photo: Stephen Edmonds · CC BY-SA 3.0Kansas City’s library logs 5.7 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
Kansas City Public Library serves 232,498 people in and around Kansas City from 8 locations. Last year it lent 2.4M books, movies and e-books and logged 1.3M visits.
What Kansas City’s library is like
More library cards than residents
263,880 cards for 232,498 people. Cards held by people from outside the service area count too, so the total can pass the population. At the typical library serving 100,000+ people, it’s 41%. How it compares ↓
Most of the library’s borrowing is digital
E-books, e-audiobooks and streaming make up 62% of loans, more per resident than at 97% of similar-size libraries. Print still makes up 38%. What people borrow ↓
Visits are the system’s strong suit
Kansas City Public Library logs 5.7 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries serving 100,000+ people, more than 99% of similar-size libraries. Borrowing is above typical too, at 3.9 print items per resident. How it compares ↓
A well-funded system
Kansas City Public Library spends $131 per resident a year, about four times the typical $36 for a library its size. What your card is worth ↓
Eight branches in Kansas City
Kansas City has eight branches of the Kansas City Public Library, which serves 232,498 people in and around Kansas City. One card works at all of them. The buildings ↓
This summary is written from the numbers on this page. Numbers are the library’s own report to the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024; Kansas City Public Library serves 232,498 people in and around Kansas City, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Kansas City’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Kansas City is ahead of 57% of U.S. towns, #136 of 229 in Missouri. Among the 385 U.S. cities over 100,000 we grade, it ranks #70. Kansas City is graded on two of the three inputs. Both inputs are above most U.S. towns; Kansas City’s count of community nonprofits ranks highest.
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 →
2,099 community nonprofits are registered in Kansas City
4.1 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 (663 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 126 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
7.7%
7.7% of Kansas City’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 9.3% in the typical Missouri 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 Kansas City’s residents live; 2022.
Every hour the doors are open, about 76 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Kansas City Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
Kansas City Public Library serves 232,498 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
62% of borrowing is digital
2.4M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
1,500,682 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 45 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.
13 places to borrow in Kansas City
Central Library, 14 W 10th St., Kansas City.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Kansas City Public Library branch.
New in Kansas City? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Other Kansas City Public Library branches in Kansas City
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.22 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Kansas City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $3M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $37M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $3M 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 263,880 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kansas City | Central Library fine-free | — | 58 | B |
| Independence | North Independence Branch | — | 69 | C |
| Liberty | Withers Branch | — | 69 | A− |
| Claycomo | Claycomo Branch | — | 61 | C |
| Raytown | Joe Herndon Branch | — | 69 | C |
| Belton | Northern Resource Center fine-free | — | 61 | B+ |
| Lee's Summit | Colbern Road Branch | — | 69 | B+ |
| Sugar Creek | Sugar Creek Branch fine-free | — | 36 | C |
| Grandview | Grandview Branch | — | 69 | C− |
| Unity Village | None of its own | — | — | — under 1,000 residents |
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. Kansas City Public Library serves 232,498 people in and around Kansas City, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Kansas City.
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 Kansas City
Does Kansas City have a public library?
Yes. Kansas City Public Library, 14 W 10th St., serves 232,498 people in and around Kansas City (the survey’s count) and is open about 58 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Kansas City 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 Kansas City’s library?
It logged 5.7 visits and lent 10.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Kansas City’s civic life grade?
B Kansas City is ahead of 57% of U.S. towns on civic life, #136 of 229 in Missouri. 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 Kansas City.
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.