Photo: Jud McCranie · CC BY-SA 4.0Darlington’s library logs 2 visits per resident, against a typical 2.6 for libraries its size
Darlington County Library System serves 62,905 people in and around Darlington. Last year it lent 160K books, movies and e-books and logged 124K visits.
What stands out about Darlington County Library System
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Darlington’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Darlington has fewer per resident than most U.S. towns. Darlington is graded on two of the three inputs. Darlington’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the U.S. middle.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($25K–$42K) score higher, so income alone doesn’t account for it.
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 →
9 community nonprofits are registered in Darlington
1.5 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 (9 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
2.6%
2.6% of Darlington’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 4.4% in the typical South Carolina 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 Darlington’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 3 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Darlington County Library System serves 62,905 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 15 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Darlington County Library System system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
160K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
17,958 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 11 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.
Find it
Darlington County Library System, 204 N. Main Street, Darlington.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Darlington County Library System branch.
New in Darlington? 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 $1.77 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Darlington cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $1.9M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.4M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $1.9M 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 33,785 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Darlington County Library System serves 62,905 people in and around Darlington, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Darlington.
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 Darlington
Does Darlington have a public library?
Yes. Darlington County Library System, 204 N. Main Street, serves 62,905 people in and around Darlington (the survey’s count) and is open about 59 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Darlington County Library System 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 Darlington’s library?
It logged 2.0 visits and lent 2.6 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Darlington’s civic life grade?
D− Darlington has fewer community nonprofits per resident, and fewer younger adults in volunteering groups, than most U.S. towns. 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 Darlington.
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.