Photo: Northernraider83 · CC BY-SA 4.0Cavalier’s library logs 1.1 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Cavalier Public Library serves 5,439 people in and around Cavalier. Last year it lent 16K books, movies and e-books and logged 6,224 visits.
What Cavalier’s library is like
Below typical on every measure
Against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, Cavalier Public Library sits below the middle on all seven per-resident measures we compare, and in the bottom 30% on five. How it compares ↓
Kids’ books are most of what goes out
Children’s books and media make up 63% of print loans. Per resident, kids’ borrowing is lower than at 57% of similar-size libraries. What people borrow ↓
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; Cavalier Public Library serves 5,439 people in and around Cavalier, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Cavalier’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Cavalier is ahead of 57% of U.S. towns. Cavalier is graded on two of the three inputs. Cavalier’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups 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 →
40 community nonprofits are registered in Cavalier
28.4 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 (6 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
4.4%
4.4% of Cavalier’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.9% in the typical North Dakota 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 Cavalier’s residents live; 2022.
Below most similar-size libraries on all 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Cavalier Public Library serves 5,439 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 10 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Cavalier Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
16K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
4,578 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
80 programs a year
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.
Find it
Cavalier Public Library, 200 Bjornson Drive, Cavalier.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Cavalier Public Library branch.
New in Cavalier? 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 $1.99 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Cavalier cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $133K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $265K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $133K 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 1,631 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Cavalier Public Library serves 5,439 people in and around Cavalier, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Cavalier.
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 Cavalier
Does Cavalier have a public library?
Yes. Cavalier Public Library, 200 Bjornson Drive, serves 5,439 people in and around Cavalier (the survey’s count) and is open about 32 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Cavalier 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 Cavalier’s library?
It logged 1.1 visits and lent 3.0 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Cavalier’s civic life grade?
B Cavalier is ahead of 57% of U.S. towns on civic life. 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 Cavalier.
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.