Photo: Hashtag youre it · CC BY-SA 4.0Rock Hill’s library logs 1.5 visits per resident, against a typical 2.1 for libraries its size
York County Library System serves 282,090 people in and around Rock Hill. Last year it lent 1.5M books, movies and e-books and logged 426K visits.
What stands out about York County Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Rock Hill’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Rock Hill is ahead of 37% of U.S. towns, #26 of 102 in South Carolina. Rock Hill is graded on two of the three inputs. Rock Hill’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($52K–$86K) 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 →
408 community nonprofits are registered in Rock Hill
5.4 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 (151 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 7 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
4.6%
4.6% of Rock Hill’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 Rock Hill’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 100,000+ people across the U.S.
York County Library System serves 282,090 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 100,000+.
Every hour the doors are open, about 117 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole York County Library System system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
1.5M loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
457,395 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 21 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
York County Library, 138 East Black Street, Rock Hill.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Loans renew on their own if no one’s waiting. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every York County Library System branch.
New in Rock Hill? 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 $2.54 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Rock Hill cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $36. Operating budget $9.1M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $23M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $9.1M 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 191,371 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock Hill | York County Library fine-free | — | 40 | C+ |
| Newport | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| India Hook | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
| Lesslie | None of its own | — | — | — unincorporated |
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.
- System-wide. York County Library System serves 282,090 people in and around Rock Hill, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Rock Hill.
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 Rock Hill
Does Rock Hill have a public library?
Yes. York County Library System, 138 East Black Street, serves 282,090 people in and around Rock Hill (the survey’s count) and is open about 40 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is York 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 Rock Hill’s library?
It logged 1.5 visits and lent 5.1 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.1 visits for libraries serving 100,000+ people.
What is Rock Hill’s civic life grade?
C+ Rock Hill is ahead of 37% of U.S. towns on civic life, #26 of 102 in South Carolina. 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 Rock Hill.
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.