Photo: Patrick Feller · CC BY 2.0Baytown’s library runs 5.4 programs per 1,000 residents, against a typical 14 for libraries its size
Sterling Municipal Library serves Baytown’s 84,067 residents. Last year it lent 232K books, movies and e-books and logged 139K visits.
What stands out about Baytown’s library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Baytown’s civic life grade
On library visits, community nonprofits and volunteering, Baytown is ahead of 5% of U.S. towns, #447 of 539 in Texas. All three inputs sit below most U.S. towns; Baytown’s count of community nonprofits comes closest to the middle.
Baytown’s 2024 visits are an estimate from one typical week (the survey’s method for libraries that don’t count every visit).
Most U.S. towns with similar household incomes ($45K–$75K) 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 →
186 community nonprofits are registered in Baytown
2.2 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 (108 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 13 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
3.7%
3.7% of Baytown’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 5.7% in the typical Texas 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 Baytown’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 1 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people across the U.S.
Sterling Municipal Library serves 84,067 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 76 items go out
Fiscal year 2024. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
232K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
Each of the 120K books and other items on the shelves went out about 1.5 times last year, on average.
50,801 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 6 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 Baytown last year.
Find it
Sterling Municipal Library, 1 Wilbanks Ave, Baytown.
E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy.
New in Baytown? 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 $1.40 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Baytown cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $40. Operating budget $2.6M.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $3.7M worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $2.6M 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 34,356 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | Houston Public Library fine-free | 2.8 | 44 | D |
| Baytown | Sterling Municipal Library | 2.8 | 61 | D |
| Mont Belvieu | Sam and Carmena Goss Memorial Branch Library fine-free | — | 50 | C+ |
| Highlands | Stratford Branch Library fine-free | — | 43 | — unincorporated |
| Beach City | None of its own | — | — | C− |
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.
- Visits are a typical-week estimate. Sterling Municipal Library counted one typical week and multiplied by 52, as the survey allows.
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 Baytown
Does Baytown have a public library?
Yes. Sterling Municipal Library, 1 Wilbanks Ave, serves Baytown’s 84,067 residents (the survey’s count) and is open about 61 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Sterling Municipal 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 Baytown’s library?
It logged 1.6 visits and lent 2.8 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 2.6 visits for libraries serving 25,000 to 100,000 people.
What is Baytown’s civic life grade?
D Baytown is ahead of 5% of U.S. towns on civic life, #447 of 539 in Texas. 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 Baytown.
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.