Photo: Brandon S. Jacobsen · CC BY-SA 3.0Raritan’s library runs 93 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 34 for libraries its size
Raritan Public Library serves Raritan’s 7,835 residents. Last year it lent 21K books, movies and e-books and logged 15K visits.
What Raritan’s library is like
Well funded, but lightly used
Raritan Public Library spends $73 per resident, more than 80% of similar-size libraries. Use doesn’t match: visits per resident are lower than at 68% of them. What your card is worth ↓
Still charges late fines, unlike its neighbors
Raritan Public Library charges late fines on some overdue items. All three libraries in neighboring towns have dropped them. What your card is worth ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 18% of the people Raritan Public Library serves have a library card, against a typical 42% for its size. How it compares ↓
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.
What’s behind Raritan’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Raritan is ahead of 46% of U.S. towns, #225 of 466 in New Jersey. Raritan’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; library visits pull 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 →
46 community nonprofits are registered in Raritan
5.5 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 (5 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.
7.2%
7.2% of Raritan’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.2% in the typical New Jersey 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 Raritan’s residents live; 2022.
About 5 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 Raritan last year.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Raritan Public Library serves 7,835 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 7 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
21K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 18K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1 time last year, on average.
3,140 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
Find it
Raritan Public Library, 54 E. Somerset Street, Raritan.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Raritan? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
What a library card is worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Raritan cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $571K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $364K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $571K 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 1,445 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raritan | Raritan Public Library | 2.7 | 57 | B− |
| Bridgewater Township | Bridgewater Branch fine-free | — | 58 | B− |
| Hillsborough Township | Hillsborough Branch Library fine-free | — | 58 | B− |
| Somerville | Somerville Branch Library fine-free | — | 54 | A |
| Bradley Gardens | None of its own | — | — | — graded as part of its town |
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 Raritan
Does Raritan have a public library?
Yes. Raritan Public Library, 54 E. Somerset Street, serves Raritan’s 7,835 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 57 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Raritan 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 Raritan’s library?
It logged 2.0 visits and lent 2.7 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Raritan’s civic life grade?
B− Raritan is ahead of 46% of U.S. towns on civic life, #225 of 466 in New Jersey. 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 Raritan.
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.