Belgrade City Hall and Jail · Photo: Robstutz · CC BY-SA 4.0Belgrade’s library lends 5.6 print items per resident, against a typical 3.9 for libraries its size
Belgrade Community Library serves 17,426 people in and around Belgrade. Last year it lent 121K books, movies and e-books and logged 59K visits.
What stands out about Belgrade Community Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Belgrade’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Belgrade is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns, #16 of 28 in Montana. Belgrade is graded on two of the three inputs. The share of younger adults in volunteering groups holds the grade up; Belgrade’s count of community nonprofits pulls it down.
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 →
38 community nonprofits are registered in Belgrade
3.2 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 (9 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 1 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
13.6%
13.6% of Belgrade’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 8.0% in the typical Montana 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 Belgrade’s residents live; 2022.
About 4 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 7 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Belgrade Community Library serves 17,426 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 53 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Belgrade Community Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
121K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
22,685 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card.
Find it
Belgrade Community Library, 106 N Broadway Ave, Belgrade.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Good at every Belgrade Community Library branch.
New in Belgrade? 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 $2.27 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Belgrade cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $806K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $1.8M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $806K 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 4,148 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Belgrade Community Library serves 17,426 people in and around Belgrade, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Belgrade.
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 Belgrade
Does Belgrade have a public library?
Yes. Belgrade Community Library, 106 N Broadway Ave, serves 17,426 people in and around Belgrade (the survey’s count) and is open about 44 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Belgrade Community Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Belgrade’s library?
It logged 3.4 visits and lent 7.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Belgrade’s civic life grade?
B+ Belgrade is ahead of 74% of U.S. towns on civic life, #16 of 28 in Montana. 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 Belgrade.
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.