Photo: UCBorough · CC BY-SA 4.0Union City’s library logs 1.4 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Union City Public Library serves 6,330 people in and around Union City. Last year it lent 21K books, movies and e-books and logged 9,068 visits.
What Union City’s library is like
Below typical on every measure
Against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people, Union City Public Library sits below the middle on all seven per-resident measures we compare, and in the bottom 30% on three. How it compares ↓
Few residents carry a card
Only 12% of the people the system serves have a library card, against a typical 42% for its size. How it compares ↓
Gifts and endowments pay a real share
25% of the system’s income comes from gifts, endowments, fees and other sources, not taxes. Local taxes cover 45%. What your card is worth ↓
Runs on less money than most
Union City Public Library spends $15 per resident, less than 91% of similar-size libraries (typical: $43). What your card is worth ↓
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; Union City Public Library serves 6,330 people in and around Union City, and its numbers cover all of them.
What’s behind Union City’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Union City is ahead of 43% of U.S. towns, #435 of 1,029 in Pennsylvania. Union City is graded on two of the three inputs. Union City’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 →
12 community nonprofits are registered in Union City
4.2 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 (4 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
6.6%
6.6% of Union City’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.0% in the typical Pennsylvania 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 Union City’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.
Union City Public Library serves 6,330 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 9 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Union City Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
21K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
3,320 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 1 kids’ program 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.
Find it
Union City Public Library, 2 Stranahan St., Union City.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Union City Public Library branch.
New in Union City? 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 $3.70 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Union City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $93K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $346K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $93K 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 761 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Union City Public Library serves 6,330 people in and around Union City, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Union 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 Union City
Does Union City have a public library?
Yes. Union City Public Library, 2 Stranahan St., serves 6,330 people in and around Union City (the survey’s count) and is open about 44 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Union City 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 Union City’s library?
It logged 1.4 visits and lent 3.4 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Union City’s civic life grade?
C+ Union City is ahead of 43% of U.S. towns on civic life, #435 of 1,029 in Pennsylvania. 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 Union 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.